Yes, yes – we’ve all heard by now that The Gray Man is an action spy flick full of clichés, recycled bits of films we’ve seen before. My response to that is: lighten up! When virtually every cast member of a film is visibly having fun with the genre and their own performances, you can’t judge it based on a comparison to, say, a serious spy thriller.
This is like a Mission Impossible if they’d let Jerry Bruckheimer into the room and forced Tom Cruise to go easy on the self-serious trip. Ryan Gosling proves to be the perfect antidote-you’re literally happy to see him every time he appears on screen.
That’s not to say that this is a great film – it is a great diversion with so many ass-kicking fight scenes and adrenaline-injected chase sequences that you do forgive the tropes of the trade. The main excess (and there are many) worth complaining about is the 2 hour and 7 minute run time. The Russo Brothers, who directed, could have wrapped up the story twenty minutes earlier and the viewer would have felt more revived than exhausted.
As the film opens, Gosling is a young prison inmate who is recruited by a CIA veteran (Billy Bob Thornton) to become an assassin whose identity will never be known and whose existence would certainly be disavowed.
When “six” (that’s his only name) discovers some bad guys within the agency, he tries to out them without being killed by them first. A bit of cat and mouse in various, gorgeous locations around the world.
So far, it’s all familiar narrative stuff, right? Enter Chris Evans, of all people, as a terrific, over-the-top villain. Reminded me a bit of Freddie Mercury with perfect teeth. He uses those chompers to chew scenery like a hamster in a pile of cedar sticks—really, really nasty guy, yet his appearances, like Gosling’s, are always amusing.
Taken apart into a thousand pieces, it’s true that there isn’t a whole lot of originality to be found. But put together as a whole, with this cheery vibe of filmmaking only aiming to entertain? That’s a mission that turns out wasn’t impossible at all.
The Gray Man may still be in some theaters when you read this and is definitely streaming on Netflix.
