Heart Of Stone Trailer: Gal Gadot Plays A Secret Agent In This Netflix Action Thriller

Over the past few years, Netflix has fallen into a bad habit of releasing largely forgettable, uninspiring action films. "The Gray Man" and "Red Notice" drew the most attention because they were star-studded and incredibly expensive, but films like "Army of the Dead," "Spenser Confidential," "The Mother," and "Extraction" didn't exactly light the world on fire.

Now the streamer is hoping to kick off a new action franchise with "Heart of Stone," which puts "Red Notice" veteran Gal Gadot front and center amid some high-flying, explosive, and yes, heavily CGI-enhanced action. But while it might be easy to write this off as just the latest in a long line of lazy Netflix action movies, I'm not ready to judge this book by its cover. No, there aren't any showcase moments here that feel as visceral as anything Tom Cruise has done in the "Mission: Impossible" movies (which are a clear inspiration for this), but there are a few reasons why I think "Heart of Stone" could end up surprising me.

First, they gave Gal Gadot's character a Classic Action Movie Protagonist name: Rachel Stone. It's gloriously dumb in the same way that names like John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Commando") or Mason Storm (Steven Seagal in "Hard to Kill") are gloriously dumb. Also, Gadot has not shown herself to be a particularly versatile performer, but a role like this seems to play to her strengths: It lets her be physical and frown a lot. Meanwhile, co-star Jamie Dornan has proven himself as more than just another bland white dude who can be interchangeably slotted into movies like this, so there's the chance he brings some energy to this movie that it looks like it might need. (Have you seen "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" yet? He's surprisingly great in that.)