Chris Evans' Pain Hustlers movie will take you on a wild Netflix ride, if you ignore its early reviews
The official trailer for Netflix's Pain Hustlers movie has landed online – and it's clearly doubling down on those big pharma-based Wolf of Wall Street comparisons.
Pain Hustlers, which stars Emily Blunt and Marvel alumnus Chris Evans, received a first-look teaser in early September. Back then, we commented on how Netflix's new crime comedy-thriller movie looked like a medical Wolf of Wall Street. And, based on its latest trailer, we're even more certain that's the vibe director David Yates (Harry Potter) is going for.
Take a look at Pain Hustlers' official trailer below:
Based on Evan Hughes' 2022 book of the same name, Pain Hustlers tells the tale of high school dropout Liza Drake (Blunt), who's hired by a Florida-based pharmaceutical start-up's sales rep called Pete Brenner (Evans). However, it isn't long before Drake realizes the unlawful practices within the company – led by unhinged CEO Jack Neel (Andy Garcia) – and is forced to question her own morality amid the company's unethical and criminal activities.
Admittedly, Pain Hustlers doesn't look as cinematic as The Wolf of Wall Street does but, with its clear star power and suspense-filled crime-based drama, it seems like it'll be another big winner for Netflix, right? Not if you believe what critics said about one of 2023's new Netflix movies when early reviews dropped in mid-September.
Based on 24 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Pain Hustlers is going to be a damp squib when it makes its debut on the world's best streaming service in late October. Indeed, its rotten 25% critical score suggests it won't be the huge success Netflix might hope it'll be, which is a darn shame when you consider the talent attached to it.
Still, as we've seen countless times before, a movie's critical reception doesn't always have a bearing on how well it performs among general viewers, especially films that launch exclusively on streaming platforms.
Take Netflix's Red Notice, for instance. The 2021 Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot-fronted action-comedy spy movie was met with a terrible 37% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes upon release, but it's currently the most-streamed Netflix movie of all time.
As of October 1, 2023, though, it's been viewed 230.9 million times, with 454.2 million hours streamed during that time (per Netflix's Top 10 website). Red Notice might not be one of the best Netflix movies in our opinion (or many others for that matter), but there's no denying its powerhouse A-list trio catapulted it to the top of Netflix's movie chart, which is where it's remained ever since.
So yes, there is hope for Pain Hustlers yet. It's off to a very poor start with critics, but it's possible that it'll be received more positively by audiences when it launches on Friday, October 27. It was one of our top four picks from Netflix's 'Fall 2023' movie lineup, too, so we're holding out hope that it does well enough to justify our faith. We'll find out soon enough.
