The blockbuster pedigree in The Gray Man should be enough to get viewers interested in it. Well, beyond Chris Evans’ ridiculously wonderful mustache. Seriously, that mustache draws so much attention to itself, it pretty much defines Evans’ great performance.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Evans plays bad guy to the film’s lead, Ryan Gosling’s Six. If those two guys weren’t enough to get you interested, they are joined by the likes of Ana de Armas, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Alfre Woodard, and Regé-Jean Page. And the whole thing is done under the direction of The Russo Brothers, and their regular collaborators, Markus & McFeely. 

The movie, the first in a planned franchise, joins a pretty long list of attempts from Netflix to create blockbuster-quality movies for its platform. So I’ll be looking at this movie from two angles: first, as a movie on Netflix that you can stream for a couple of hours, should you watch this? And then second (and probably less important, but hey, I think it’s a line of thought worth pursuing), if you were to slot it alongside other movies in its genre and style, how does it hold up? 

Right, so do you have a Netflix account (and I am sure they are hoping that it is your own account and you aren’t password sharing) and a couple of hours to burn? Then absolutely, yes, this is a movie to watch. Easy to say that this film, despite being a Netflix release, definitely earns its box office release. It’s a huge film, with massive set pieces, exciting action, and a pace that leaves you breathless. 

The movie takes a kitchen sink approach to the spy action genre. Want a shootout in a nightclub? Car chases? Giant public shootouts? Close quarters hand-to-hand fighting? Castles? Mazes? Explosions? Grenades? Guns? Knives? The obligatory torture sequence? Basically, think of something that you might find in a movie like this, and know that it will have it, if not two or three of them. 

Story? What story? Oh right. So you get Gosling’s Six, who’s part of a special secret agent program that’s being phased out. And the CIA has some bad dudes who are part of this phaseout. In the first few minutes of the film, Six gets burned and has to go on the run, trying to survive as the CIA engages the unhinged Lloyd Hansen (Evans) to bring him in. 

And in kitchen sink approach, there’s a flash drive (because of course there’s a flash drive). But there’s also a kidnap victim that must be rescued. Action ensues. 

Oh, and what big and wonderful action it is. We know what the Russo brothers can do, because how much bigger can you get than the final battle of Avengers: Endgame? Here, they go big and they also make some interesting (if not always successful) choices. There are shades of Casino Royale in their attempts to play with chiaroscuro, as well as a nod to the Bourne films and its many successors in the shaky cam combat. 

Overall though, as a movie you can turn on and watch on streaming, it’s hard to find an action movie that even comes close to the production values and sheer volume of action sequences. I’ll discuss later the things I might not have enjoyed about this movie, but whatever those might have been, they are more than made up for with the creative and often wow-inducing parts. 

By the end, I had enjoyed it and thought enough of it was interesting that I wouldn’t mind a sequel or two. 

Now how does it stack up in the spy action genre? 

First, the writing, it’s…not the best. There are some bits where the script gets a little too cute and thinks some things are funnier than they actually are. You know when you’re watching Marvel movies and they seem so amused with themselves and do a little too much referencing/callbacks? That’s here too. I guess this kind of humor will work with some audiences, but it fell flat for me. Some lines are too obvious, some things tie in too neatly. I suppose it’s written as a blockbuster and crowd-pleaser. But it’s too bad that there wasn’t a little more flair to it, given that you have such a great cast. 

The performances here are what you might expect. Gosling might have the movie’s most understated performance. He has given us great, very low-key turns in movies like Drive and Blade Runner 2049. He isn’t doing anything to write too much about here, but he delivers what the movie needs and is, as always, a compelling onscreen presence that keeps you watching. Evans might be the person who had the most fun in this whole project, as he gets to play a cartoonish bad guy. And the supporting cast acts credible in what is a mostly absurd film. 

I have a lot of issues particularly with how the action is executed. Ever since Bourne innovated shaky cam, it’s become one of the most commonly used techniques to try and liven up fight sequences. And…for the most part I am not a fan. Shaky cam action is usually more frustrating than it is impactful. In this movie, it’s almost a shame for me that we see so little of the action because of the chosen techniques. Between the shaky cam and decisions to make some shots as dark as they can possibly be, you lose a sense of space and motion. As a result, some great fight choreography gets lost. 

However, when the camera pulls back and they light things well, things are just jaw-dropping. The train sequence shown in the trailer is much bigger, part of a much larger set of action scenes, and that whole brightly lit and expansively shot chunk was my favorite of the film. 

As for story, sure, it’s kitchen sink in that it throws everything at you. However, there are no twists and turns, no big reveals, nothing that suddenly puts you on the edge of your seat or has you asking questions. The bad dude has a mustache and that should be enough for you to know. The other bad dude? Smarmy. Our good guy? A good guy. 

This is all to say that this isn’t going up on my list of great spy movies. It is a spy movie only in so much as some of the characters are employed by the CIA. But there is pretty much no espionage, no spycraft and intrigue. It’s just a big, hulking, barreling collection of action sequences with mostly vanilla story in between them. 

The movie feels like it’s trying to line up beside Bourne and Bond in terms of genre, but it also wants to have the high-octane action propulsion of John Wick. In that sense, it’s more successful in the latter. I would never recommend this movie to someone looking for a spy action thriller or something like that. But if someone wanted an action movie with some really cool sequences and a bunch of movie stars, then they would be very happy with The Gray Man. – Rappler.com