Michael Bay’s films can easily be compared to McDonald’s: doesn’t require a lot to make, taste cheap, and no matter how bad it is, somebody will eat the s**t out of it. “6 Underground”, directed by Michael Bay, is exactly just that. A cheap, by the numbers action romp with little to no substance and pure explosive chaos filling the screen.
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The film follows six individuals who have decided to fake their own deaths in order to escape their pitiful lives and begin a new one ad mercenaries hunting down the world’s most dangerous bad guys.
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Opening up with an nearly 15 minute long car chase that features all of Bay’s tropes, which are: explosions, civilian casualties, sexy cars, sexy women, crude humor, and hyper-kinetic cuts that are jarring enough to make you lightheaded, this alone gives you a taste of what you’re going to receive from this 2 hour feature, unfiltered Bay. Cut fast and with a frenzy befitting the use of illegal drugs, the film is rife with narrative questions and plot holes the size of the small Middle Eastern country actor Ryan Reynolds and his misfit team are trying to liberate. Armed with a zippy script and a wise cracking lead in Reynolds, the film seems more than happy to ping-pong between mayhem-filled action set pieces and goofy gags that sort of hit the funny mark to entertain the viewer and completely forgets about everything else. There’s ludicrous plot elements that are introduced throughout the film to fill the runtime, including one that shows the process of being inducted into this group with actor Corey Hawkins, but is ultimately dropped for more uninspired action sequences that’s just candy for the eyes. As the initial jolt of stylized action becomes numbing instead of entertaining, not even the charm of Ryan Reynolds can save us from the hyperactive ridiculousness.
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“6 Underground” can be seen as something to shut your mind off to and be entertained. However, the film simply falls apart under that basic definition of its purpose. It becomes repetitive, nonsensical, and just loud. At the end, we’re left with nothing to do but to go boom. A quote said by one of the film’s characters perfectly summarizes this, as he says that this team can still “do some s**t... awfully loud.” This film is definitely some awfully loud s**t.
