A star-studded and unstoppably underwhelming in-house spy thriller infiltrates the Netflix charts

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via Netflix

Netflix’s penchant for recruiting a cavalcade of big names and dropping them into a broad genre film has tended to yield results that could generously be described as inconsistent, and it’s a neat summation of the company’s approach to original filmmaking that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Wasp Network even exists.

The 1990s-set spy thriller premiered on the platform back in June of 2020, and while that’s hardly a long time ago, it feels like an eternity in the age of streaming. Even though it’s an espionage caper inspired by true events that boasts a heavy-hitting roster of recognizable stars, the movie ended up vanishing into the darkest recesses of the library in an instant.

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via Netflix

That being said, subscribers have taken it upon themselves to breathe some new life into Wasp Network, with FlixPatrol revealing the forgotten spy story to have made a comeback on the platform’s most-watched charts. Writer and director Olivier Assayas tells the tale of the Cuban Five – intelligence agents who were arrested in Florida and convicted of espionage – but doesn’t come close to making it exciting.

Even though he’s got Edgar Ramirez, Penélope Cruz, Wagner Moura, Gael García Bernal, and Ana de Armas at his disposal – as well as a riveting snapshot of counterintelligence history to draw on – Wasp Network could only rustle up Rotten Tomatoes scores of 40 and 36 percent. There’s a great movie in there somewhere, it’s just a crying shame that so much talent could only conspire to make something so relentlessly underwhelming and entirely disposable.