Heart of Stone (2023, Netflix)

[shevek]

Is this technically a superheroine movie?

One could argue that it comes close.

After all, it stars Gal Gadot, and is written by Greg Rucka (who actually wrote Wonder Woman for a while, as well as a whole bunch of DC, Marvel and creator-owned titles, as well the film The Old Guard, which definitely was a superhero movie).

It also has a diverse and potentially very hot lineup of actresses of Nigerian, Chinese and Indian ancestry (Sophie Okonedo, Alia Bhatt and Jing Lusi).
Hopefully they are in some tight costumes, if not precisely superheroine ones.

It looks like this is meant to be the start of a Mission Impossible or John Wick style franchise where Gal Gadot (aka Rachel Stone) chases MacGuffins
around the world in a race against time and evil enemies.

Apparently, Red Notice did really well on Netflix, and Mystery on the Nile did decently in theaters, so this has a pretty good shot of keeping Gal's immense cred going long-term in the post-Snyder era.

Comes out on Aug 4 in limited theaters and Aug 11 online. I'll make a point to check it out.

P.S. Apparently, Gal Gadot will get her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce claims that she is the first person of Israeli descent to get a star on the Walk. But when I read the sentence, I knew that had to be a lie, so I played a hunch: apparently Natalie Portman doesn't have one (how is that even possible?) but Haim Saban does! (he got it back in 2017)

Gal Gadot and Alia Bhatt in Heart of Stone.

alia-shares-her-look-gal-gadot-in-full-flow-in-heart-of-stone-teaser-001.jpg (45.41 KiB) Viewed 1189 times

[Dogfish]

That's insane that Natalie Portman doesn't have one. She's got an Oscar. She's been in great movies, decent movies, and she's been in some gigantically profitable trash movies too. How you going to have an Oscar and no star holy crap.

More spy style McGuffin chase movies is a good idea too. The more the merrier.

[korda]

You have to pay to get your Star on the Walk of Fame. The vast majority of artists don't care, usually the studios or some sponsor pays for the artist. Lynda Carter recently got one in what I believe was paid by Warner for her participation in WW84.

[Lurkndog]

Heart of Stone was a good watch.

It was much better than Citadel, which was a similar "supercomputer runs spy agency, what could go wrong?" storyline done by Amazon.

Mainly, Gal Gadot is more likeable than the stars of that show, they didn't use the "all spies are evil" trope, and they did a much, much better job of hiding the green screen.

[Kitten]

Agreed it was a good watch, i'd consider it more of a spy movie than superhero, though Black Widow is a spy so maybe there's room to consider it one?

[shevek]

Gal Gadot: even more beautiful in real life than on screen!

I hope that some representatives from L.A.'s huge Persian community were there, too. I can't imagine any of them like the Ayatollah too much.