Ghosted (2023) Review

RATING: 3/10

ENGLISH director Dexter Fletcher has seen success with Taron Egerton in the past, with Eddie The Eagle and Rocketman garnering commercial and critical praise. However, Apple TV's Ghosted marks Fletcher's first major production without the Hollywood upstart - and boy does it show in this subpar shambles of a movie.

Ladies man Cole Turner (Chris Evans) begins to fall in love with the alluring Sadie Rhodes (Ana de Armas) following a simple one night stand. But when he finds out Sadie is an international secret agent, Cole is immediately swept up with Rhodes on a worldwide mission that will undoubtedly affect the lives of their loved ones.

If if sounds like you've seen this movie before, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Ghosted's plot is a rehash of every other mismatched spy-romance such as 2018's The Spy Who Dumped Me and 2012's This Means War; an unapologetic amount of insincerity lingers throughout the film similar to the feeling of a message left on read. Fletcher attempts to create genuine drama in a plot as preposterous as this, causing a chain reaction which results in the few moments of comedy coming across as cringe-worthy and awkward, especially when you factor in the talent possessed by a cast that doesn't want to be apart of this travesty.

A big talking point when going into this film was the drop-out of Scarlett Johannsson as Sadie, a decision which was made due to scheduling conflicts on Johannsson's end. This would have marked Evans and Johannsson's ninth film collaboration and could have made for a tolerable experience as the two have proven their chemistry on and off the screen, but this conflict resulted in the team casting Ana de Armas instead. Ever since her coming out performance in 2019's Knives Out, ironically alongside Chris Evans, Armas has proven herself to be a talented actress; an actress that has sadly been wasted in frivolous and forgettable roles.

The past three years haven't been kind to Armas, starring in Deep Water, The Gray Man, and Blonde - all of which were either bland or atrocious, and Ghosted is sadly no different. Her and Evans do the best they can with what they're given, but even the most talented of artists can't fix a canvas as blank as this, making these award-nominated actors come across as unexperienced artists who don't belong anywhere near the big screen.

Ghosted contains next to no redeeming qualities and joke that are only hilarious in an ironic sense. Apple TV have been promoting this spy-comedy as a main reason to subcribe to their streaming service, and if this is the best they have to offer, then it says alot about the state of their movies; it's a real shame too as Black Bird and Tetris are certainly great originals on offer, both of which are sadly being overshadowed by this awful excuse for a movie. I couldn't recommend Ghosted any less, making it the worst film of 2023 so far - easily.