PLOT: A covert CIA operative, Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) aka Sierra Six, is on the run from his employers after obtaining material incriminating an agency big-wig. When his former boss (Billy Bob Thornton) is kidnapped by a sadistic independent contractor, Gentry and his one ally, a CIA operative (Ana de Armas), must launch a rescue attempt and avoid the scores of assassins sent to kill them.
REVIEW: Netflix has been trying hard to put together the next big action franchise. As such, they pumped $200 million into adapting Mark Greaney’s series of novels featuring the adventures of Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six, a CIA operative who operates in “the gray.” Did they manage to make a game-changing blockbuster finally?
So here’s the thing about The Gray Man – it’s coming out at a time when a bunch of spy sagas are being adapted, with it being released just weeks after the near-simultaneous release of FX & Hulu’s The Old Man and Prime Video’s The Terminal List. Viewers might be confused and get their spy assassins mixed up, but unlike those dark and gritty shows, The Gray Man makes no pretence of being believable. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo have made a tentpole blockbuster with action and carnage on the scale of one of their Marvel movies. Ryan Gosling’s hero, Sierra Six, might not be a superhero, but he may as well be, with him shrugging off bullet wounds and gravity and zipping around from country to country without much of a care in the world. It’s silly and hard to take seriously, but here’s the thing – it’s super fun.
Listen, if you’re looking for a gritty, grounded spy saga, you have plenty of options. The Russo’s are trying to do something more like James Bond or Mission: Impossible with the massive action sequences. Technically it’s mostly impeccable if you can get over some cartoonish CGI (which will fare better at home than theatrically – which is how I saw this). The action is non-stop, if a little numbing in the way hundreds of people get mowed down without a drop of blood. It’s a PG-13 film through and through, with tons of shoot-em-ups, but no fallout, with the action done in that crisp, bloodless superhero way. Interestingly, the movie’s best action sequence is a stripped-down, hand-to-hand fight between the two leads that happens close to the end. Nothing compares with it, despite them blowing up airplanes, having Gosling free-fall and steal a parachute like he’s Roger Moore in Moonraker, and waging war on the entire CIA.
The stacked cast, particularly Ryan Gosling, is what makes The Gray Man work so well. Despite being a movie star for nearly twenty years, Gosling’s never done a major action movie on this level. He looks great and has a sense of humour about himself that could seem forced but doesn’t because he’s so charming. He’s built his body up to almost Schwarzenegger level here and excels at all the mayhem. It’s hard not to want to follow Court Gentry on a whole slew of missions once the credits roll. Chris Evans is smartly cast as his nemesis, a psychotic contractor named Lloyd Hansen who lacks Gentry’s scruples. He’s out to kill Gentry because he has a data file implicating Rege Jean Page’s agency big wig in all sorts of mayhem. To bring Gentry in, he kidnaps his old mentor, Billy Bob Thorton’s Fitzroy, and the man’s niece, played by Once Upon A Time in Hollywood’s Julia Butters, who Gentry looks at like a daughter.
Evans seems to channel his character in Knives Out, taking glee in how evil he is – he’s basically anti-Captain America. Ana de Armas, in a role strikingly similar to the one she just played in No Time to Die, is an agent who routinely dips in to rescue Gentry, and once again, her attitude and style are impressive. She seems born to lead action movies and might be the next big female action star. Thornton is also likeable as Fitzroy, and Butters makes what could have been a too precocious kid an agreeable presence. The movie is almost stolen by Tamil star Dhanush, who waltzes in like he’s the lead in his action movie and seems like a no-brainer to get a spin-off. He’s the cold, brutal killer sent after Gentry with a moral code, and Danush kills it here.
However, I think the cast is maybe too stacked for a 2-hour movie. Rege Jean Page is the nominal antagonist and plays him as a one-note brat who seems too young and coiffed as the desperate CIA head afraid his misdeeds will get out. The same goes for Jessica Henwick, who plays his number 2, although I did get a kick at her mounting horror as Evans gets increasingly psychotic, which is nearly played for laughs. The score by Henry Jackman is slick, with tons of cool needle-drops from seventies yacht rock which seems to be becoming a trend at Netflix between this, The Adam Project and Spiderhead. The cinematography is better than average for a Netflix movie, backing off the usual orange and teel, although it definitely feels like a movie made for 4K TVs rather than theatres
In the end, time will tell whether or not this will be the big tentpole Netflix needs. It’s a HUGE movie and leaves enough threads dangling to launch half a dozen spin-offs. The world-building is a bit exhausting, as it takes the focus away from Gosling’s Gentry too often, but I had a blast with The Gray Man from start to finish.