There are exciting explosions, chases, gunfights, fireworks, planes falling from the sky, and even a plot if that’s your thing.
Even though “The Gray Man” stars Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Regé-Jean Page, directors Anthony and Joe Russo are more interested in pounding pulses and taking breaths than throbbing hearts in this globe-hopping action thriller. It is a big, loud, explosive adrenaline rush. It is a live-action version of the old “MAD” magazine comic “Spy vs. Spy,” and it is about as deep.
It’s a simple story. Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) recruits Six (Ryan Gosling) in prison to be a “grey man” and kill bad guys for the CIA as part of the Sierra program, an elite unit. Six go rogue during a mission to kill Dining Car (Callan Mulvey). But Dining Car says that he is “Sierra Four” and that Six will be the next target. Four gives Six a medal with an encrypted drive inside. The drive has information that could be used against Six’s boss, Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), who is a high-up at Langley.
Denny isn’t too happy about this bad turn of events, so he hires independent agent Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to kill Six and get the drive back by any means necessary. Lloyd is said to have “zero impulse control,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t torture people or destroy cities in Europe.
That’s about all there is to it. Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas, who isn’t used enough) shows up sometimes to kick ass, and Fitzroy’s niece Claire (Julia Butters from “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”) has a pacemaker and is part of a side story. But most of the movie is just one action scene after another.
But the action scenes are pretty cool. Six fights his way out of a plane that is falling apart as it goes down in a scene that will make you dizzy. In another episode, he MacGyvers his way out of a tough situation. It’s best not to explain how he does it, but it’s pretty clever. Then, while Six is handcuffed to a bench, there is a huge shootout, and there is a long, exciting chase scene on a tramline that may be the film’s pièce de résistance. All of these scenes are done with style, with fast-paced editing and a moving camera that makes them more exciting. All of them are pretty cool.
But as exciting or tiring as “The Gray Man” is, it’s hard to believe that Six can survive everything he faces in the movie. Everything seems pretty flat. Six is Wile E. Coyote to Lloyd’s Wile E. Coyote. Six is the Road Runner to Lloyd’s Wile E. Coyote. The whole movie is like a Looney Tunes cartoon brought to life. All of the explosives, from grenades to rocket launchers, could just as well be labeled “Acme.”
One almost wants to cheer for Wile, er, Lloyd, because Chris Evans, in his “white pants and trash stache,” seems to be having fun playing an over-the-top bad guy. Gosling is once again too cool for school as Six in “Drive.” When he gets put down a notch, like when he admits that Dani Miranda keeps saving him behind, the movie is mildly entertaining. Gosling also has one shirtless scene where he shows off his impressive chest. This is the same number of times he is called a “Ken doll.” )
Regé-Jean Page is just as vain as he is pretty when he plays Carmichael. It would have been better if he had been cast as Six because he could do a good job of being calm when things got tough. As Carmichael, Page has to worry about getting caught, which is not a good look for the “Bridgerton” star.
Each character goes through a series of bad luck, but “The Gray Man” makes it clear how things will turn out. Sure, there is a great scene in which Margaret Cahill (Alfre Woodard), a contact of Fitzroy’s, helps out, and there are clever, coded spy exchanges like, “Have you tried aluminum siding?” / “I prefer fiberglass.” In another funny scene, Laszlo Sosa (played by the great Wagner Moura, who plays it up) is an agent who helps Six with things like getting a passport.
These episodes are far more interesting than Six’s backstory and what he did to land in jail (cue tired father issues); Lloyd torturing someone for information; or even a flabby sequence where Six “babysits” Claire, so they can bond, and her medical condition can tug at heartstrings. There are also many long needle drops that should make things more interesting but don’t.
But the movie seems to fall apart when Six and Lloyd finally face off against each other, after a long chase through a hedge maze at night. When Gosling and Evans fight in a water fountain, it should be very exciting, but it is strangely dull, especially after some of the movie’s great action scenes.
In the end, “The Gray Man” is both mindless and exciting, like “Extraction” or “The Old Guard,” which are also on Netflix. That’s not a bad thing, but it could have been better.
You can now watch “The Gray Man” on Netflix.
