While the main guys have backstory (even if Evans' is just 'went to Harvard'), her character doesn't have any motivating story that I can recall. I mention the names because Ana de Armas is also in this film, but I'm darned if I could tell you what her character's called. His character, by the way, is called Lloyd Hanson, which is less cool than Sierra 6 but sticks in your mind because someone says it literally every 20 seconds. Evans hams it up for the both of them as a suavely unhinged torturer with a wardrobe of natty knitted polo shirts, like James Bond's maladjusted little brother. Gosling plays it relatively straight, although Sierra 6's real name is Courtland Gentry, which means he has not one but two improbably cool action hero names. The Gray Man is up there with the stylized likes of Atomic Blonde, and might give John Wick a run for his money.Ī big part of the film's success is the star wattage on display, Gosling and Evans (and super-charismatic guest star Dhanush) handling the action heroics and quippy banter with equal assuredness. Don't be fooled by the title: There's nothing gray about the lush cinematography, kinetic camerawork and playful music. From the opening scene, in which Gosling goes into battle in a crisp scarlet suit twirling a water pistol, to his silent silhouetted dispatching of a platoon of bodyguards with whatever cutlery comes to hand, the flick has swagger to burn. That's what sets The Gray Man apart from formulaic plods like Extraction or Amazon's turgid Without Remorse. The quippy banter and sharp action are heightened and stylized, and just a ton of fun. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, the men behind several of Marvel's Captain America and Avengers movies, are very self-aware about the type of flick they're making.

Rooftop helipads and secure lines and guys making the bullets fall out of a gun before the other guy can shoot him.īut as yet another city name blares across the screen in massive letters, you start to wonder if the filmmakers are mocking the conventions of the spy genre. Action scenes cutting to analysts panicking in front of walls of monitors. Wet teams striding across airfields in body armor. On paper, The Gray Man has all the elements of a formulaic spy genre (and I do mean all the elements - there's about four movies' worth of stuff going on). A USB drive? After 60 years of James Bond on screen, after six (and counting) Mission: Impossible movies, a spy movie hinges on a frickin' thumb drive! So anyway, Gosling comes into conflict with Chris Evans' unhinged mercenary as they're both sent to retrieve a vital USB drive, and. Seriously? In this, the year 2022, we're still making movies about assassins who go rogue because they won't kill a kid? Except he finds himself at odds with his calculating boss after he refuses to endanger a child. And when we catch up to Gosling in the modern day, now a slick killing machine known only as Sierra 6, he's a jaded shell only good for dispatching nameless bad actors who got on the wrong side of Uncle Sam. 'We get it, you're glib,' Thornton responds, but as Gosling contemplates a life of murder for the government, his eyes soften mournfully. The Gray Man opens with Gosling in prison two decades ago, wisecracking at Billy Bob Thornton's unflappable CIA spook. Having played in some theaters and streaming on Netflix since Friday, July 22, The Gray Man has already been successful enough for Netflix to confirm a sequel (with Gosling returning) and spinoff (from the writers of Deadpool). This rip-roaring and star-powered spy romp from the Russo brothers throws all the money at the screen as Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans go head to head. Following a string of wildly popular but not very good action movies (Red Notice, Extraction), Netflix delivers with The Gray Man, streaming now.

Screenflick movie 5