Red Sparrow Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

1. It's About 20 Minutes Too Long

Red Sparrow Jennifer Lawrence
20th Century Fox

In case you weren't aware, Red Sparrow clocks in at a hefty 140 minutes, and there's little indication from the final cut that it needed to run a minute over two hours.

The latter two acts in particular could've easily been trimmed down and reconstituted into something pacier, while perhaps giving the rushed earlier scenes a little more time to breathe.

Asking audiences to sit through an almost 2.5-hour movie that feels so familiar isn't particularly appealing, and this might prompt many to save it for a future Netflix viewing rather than block out some time to catch in cinemas. It's hard to blame anyone who does that, really.

Loaded with issues though the movie is, it certainly succeeds in several key areas. Here's what Red Sparrow gets right...

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.