New Apple TV+ film’s pairing of Ana de Armas and Chris Evans in Ghosted, a romantic adventure thriller that looked like a sure-fire hit, had Rotten Tomatoes assess it as a surprisingly dull waste of time. Ghosted has received criticism for poor writing, mediocre chemistry, and in some cases, has even been dubbed the “worst movie of the year” in early reviews.
Ghosted sees de Armas and Evans teaming up again following their appearances together in Knives Out and The Gray Man. Evans plays Cole, who finds himself falling in love on a first date with Sadie (de Armas). When Sadie vanishes, Cole jets off to Europe to try and track her down and find out if she is safe. What he discovers is that Sadie is actually a special forces agent, and he is soon caught up in a dangerous conspiracy.
The plot seems to be fairly well known, and it appears that many critics think it may be a little too similar to earlier works in the genre, like Romancing the Stone, True Lies, and other romantic action thrillers from a long time ago. While many films follow the same formula, they are frequently made more enjoyable by a strong script and likable lead performers. However, Ghosted appears to be deficient in these areas as well.
Julian Roman’s assessment of the film for Movieweb largely concurs with the general opinion and points out in particular how the movie’s reliance on famous cameos cannot make up for the inability to portray its stars as a convincing pair. He mentions the following:
“Ghosted can’t figure out how to make its individually likeable leads work as a couple. The premise of a needy farmer accidentally falling for a lethal secret agent had promise. Opposites attract, and love blooms while bullets fly. Sounds good on paper, but there needs to be a tangible connection tying the mismatched pair together. The film packs on the star power with a barrage of big-name cameos. These scenes are relatively humorous but too fleeting to make a difference.”
How Did Ghosted Fail? Did the Big Cast help?
The assumption behind films created for streaming is that they weren’t nearly good enough to be granted theatrical distribution. Despite the fact that this is not always the case, it seems as though Ghosted had a flaw that its A-list cast couldn’t fix.
While it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why Evans and de Armas’ chemistry on screen hasn’t clicked, a portion of the issue might be related to the fact that Sadie was recast when the original star Scarlett Johansson had to leave the role due to a scheduling dispute. It probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the final product, given that so many bad reviews claim that the script doesn’t fully function as either a romantic comedy or an action thriller.
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