Movie review: The Gray Man

Ryan Gosling stars in the Netflix action film The Gray Man. Streaming now.

Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans square off in this expensive Netflix effort from Anthony and Joe Russo, the brothers who directed the last two Avengers movies.

Gosling is the title character, a convicted murderer (the guy deserved it) recruited from prison by Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), a CIA agent who oddly refers to himself as such. Fitzroy explains that Gosling's background, temperament and lack of family make him the ideal candidate to become a government assassin, the kind who exists in the...grey...areas (having film titles reflect regional spelling appears to be beyond Netflix's technical capabilities).

Now known as Sierra Six, Gosling's character has spent decades honing his craft as one of the top spies in his field. But when Thornton's replacement Carmichael (played by Bridgerton breakout Rege-Jean Page) instructs him to take out a fellow member of team Sierra, Six (as he is only ever referred to, which one hopes is a nod to the main character in Patrick McGoohan's iconic 60s spy series The Prisoner) smells a rat and is soon on the run from his ruthless employers with critical evidence of their misdeeds.

So Carmichael deploys freelance operative Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to track down his errant employee. Hansen is a torture-loving psycho who's even further off the books than Six, and he's willing to use Fitzroy's niece (Julia Butters from Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood) to lure Six out of hiding.

The Gray Man is principally comprised of a series of explosive action set pieces across a variety of far-flung locales (Bangkok, Croatia) that look like they cost a lot of money, but don't offer much in the way of invention or aesthetic prowess. It's almost remarkable how flat the film looks – it has all the visual wonder of an NCIS episode.

Evans is clearly relishing the chance to subvert his boy scout Captain America persona as the sadistic Lloyd, and Gosling deploys his wryness effectively at times, but neither actor is given anything beyond utterly stock standard material to work with. Every character here is a total cliche.

Page fails to make an impact in his first major post-Bridgerton role, but we can once again blame the lacklustre script. Ana de Armas (No Time to Die) and Jessica Henwick (The Matrix: Resurrections), two of the coolest actresses working today, are similarly under served.

Although all the same elements are there on paper, and probably cost a similar amount, this feels extra crummy next to the Mission: Impossible series, which it repeatedly evokes.

It all speaks to the lack of quality control that defines Netflix's quantity-first approach. If any movie needed a ruthless executive breathing down the film-makers' necks, it was this one.

Glaring in its lack of texture or flavour, this only really succeeds as a succession of mildly diverting bullet-riddled set pieces.

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas
Director: The Russo brothers
Running time: 128 minutes
Rating: M (Violence, offensive language & cruelty)
Verdict: Netflix Bloat: The Movie