The Gray Man

Netflix's The Gray Man borrows from a slew of secret-agent thrillers, but doesn't match them in quality, writes Nicholas Barber.

The result is a film that never seems to know what it's doing, or why. The characters always have smarmy comebacks at the ready (although they're witty without being funny), the ever-cool Gosling raises a smile by treating the violence as a mildly irritating inconvenience, and Evans is entertainingly horrible as a sadistic sociopath. This, then, could be the ideal moment for a new cinematic secret agent – and The Gray Man seems to be the man for the job. The one-dimensionally evil Carmichael calls in a one-dimensionally crazy contractor called Lloyd (Chris Evans with a moustache) to retrieve the doohickey and to bump off Six, and Lloyd in turn calls in every team of assassins in his little black book. It's fair to say that Greaney's idea of Six being a mysterious figure who can slip into the shadows, unnoticed by anyone, has been abandoned in favour of absurdly over-the-top mayhem, so if you enjoy seeing planes, cars and buildings being blown up in a fake-looking way, then The Gray Man will pass the time. The truly hackneyed part is that Six is on the run from the very people who trained him.

'The Gray Man,' starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, is another big-budget Netflix movie that feels like it's just playacting as a Hollywood ...

Granted, the swift disappearance of specific genres (like the rom-com) has left critics and pundits (mea culpa) willing to relish a new offering (like Marry Me) precisely because it feels flash-frozen from another era. However, as shown from Extraction (which positioned Hemsworth as the secondary lead in the action climax) and 21 Bridges (which had a Sydney Lumet-worthy distrust of cops and awareness of systemic corruption), you can make a throwback that doesn’t feel like a relic. While the stunts look practical and the scale is impressive, the editing and staging render much of the showdowns painfully chaotic. Rising star Julia Butters holds her own even though she is quickly made a full-time hostage/damsel. Perhaps by default, the attempt by this film to recapture the glory days of the Hollywood action movie can’t help but revert to past-their-time tropes and cliches. The film spins itself silly to make it feel expansive while burying its simple plot (the good guy must save his mentor and the mentor’s niece and kill the bad guy) under a deluge of misdirection and internal confusion. While we don’t have much reason to root for Court Gentry (Gosling) beyond the “he avoids collateral damage” variable, the curtain-raiser offers travelogue locales and plenty of colorful momentum as our hero improvises but gets into a brawl with his target.

Film review: The Russo Bros return with Netflix's biggest-budget movie to date, and it will make you pine for the relative complexity of Fast & Furious.

in the shoulder,” with the word “bro” thrown in. Expect a sequel with a similarly predictable trajectory: The Gray Man: Foregone Conclusion. Evans has fun twirling his porn-tashe in a project that converts the set-up-joke rhythm of the sitcom into asskicking-bit-quip. The Gray Man, ominously, is one of those projects that has been kicked around Hollywood for more than a decade. Prague is impressively pretend-decimated in the film’s most high-octane sequence. The incessant wisecracking approximates a Bond script in which every line is – to name one – George Lazenby’s “Just a slight stiffness coming on...

The new Netflix $200 million blockbuster will actually debut in Irish cinemas this week. Sometimes two negatives can make a positive. Advertisement. Take a look ...

After that, you'll likely revisit it on the streaming service, but skipping the plot bits to get to the explosions. Thankfully, the plot barely matters, and we'll either have another well-shot fight scene or witty one-liner before too long. Evans has doubled-down on his Knives Out arsehole character, making for a truly detestable but incredibly-fun-to-watch boo-hiss villain, while Gosling brings the same sarcastic charm he had in Crazy Stupid Love, but bolts on the ability to snap necks. Remember that gorgeous practical action from Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Yeah, that has been partly replaced by not-great CGI for the movie's biggest effects scene. The slinkily vicious basic-ness of Keanu Reeves' hit franchise doesn't fold well into the bombastic, wide-audience appeal of modern Bond. Admittedly, a fairly low bar to cross, but still.

The action-packed thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans is clever, stylish and fun to watch. But it's still missing something essential.

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It's not enough to see Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling do battle in just one Netflix movie, so here's all the info on The Gray Man 2 release date.

That’s all we know about The Gray Man 2 release date for now, but we’re sure more details will crawl out of the woodwork as the dust settles on this first chapter in Court Gentry’s journey. So, when can we expect The Gray Man 2 release date to be? What will be The Gray Man 2 release date?