Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Dhanush starrer seems like a rerun of a thousand spy action movies

Movie: the gray man
The gray man castRyan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Rege-Jean Page, Julia Butters, Billy Bob Thornton, Dhanush, Alfre Woodard
Directors of the Gray Man: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Where to watch: In theaters
Review by: Russel D’Silvac
The Russian brothers – Anthony Russo and Joe Russo – delivered the second highest and fifth highest grossing film of all time with Avengers Endgame and Avengers Infinity War while their Captain America Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier did great on the theater box office all over the world. Not only have they brought in the big bucks, but they’ve also gotten glowing reviews. Now they return, albeit on Netflixstarring The Gray Man, a spy action movie, starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Rege-Jean Page, Julia Butters, Billy Bob Thornton, Dhanush and Alfred Woodard. Unfortunately, just like Cherrytheir immediate outing after their three superhero movies, this one flatters to cheat. Also Read – Imlie: Fahmaan Khan trends as Aryan Singh Rathore after intense performance; fans debate Malini and his wedding number [Read Tweets]

So, are you excited about what to watch this weekend or this week and wondering if The Gray Man is worth your time? Scroll down for my full Movie review of The Gray Man… Also Read – Samantha Ruth Prabhu reveals what she feels about Dhanush, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun and her recent female co-star Nayanthara on Koffee With Karan 7

What is it about

After ghost cop Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) of the C.I.A reveals dark secrets of his agency and a plot to keep them buried by destroying all members of his ghost team, a corrupt bureau boss hires a runaway private contractor Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to get rid of Six, who in turn unleashes the world’s most deadly mercenaries on his tail. Also Read – From Samantha Ruth Prabhu with hard feelings for Naga Chaitanya to Chay who is happy after a divorce: 5 times an ex-couple spoke about their bitter experience

Watch the the gray man trailer below:

what’s hot

Right off the bat, the only things that barely keep The Gray Man afloat are the performances and a few action scenes — not even all of them. Ryan Gosling is the perfect laconic protagonist, whose action really speaks louder than words, while Chris Evans is gleefully insane as a sociopathic private contractor, who leads the largest squad of mercenaries. Ana de Armas is very impressive and almost matches Gosling’s intensity and action chops, Rege-Jean Page is suitably creepy and Julia Butters is spicy and innocent at the same time.

Veterans Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard do what veterans do. When he comes to Dhanush, he’s there for the whole 15 minutes, but it’s the impact he leaves as an actor and the way his character is portrayed that matters. Now, coming to the action, a long choreographed scene in Prague and the climax are to some extent the only big highlights, but sparkle enough to keep you somewhat involved. The production values, cinematography and VFX are all top notch, but that’s what you’d expect from one of Netflix’s most expensive products ever, budgeted at $200 million.

What not

The Gray Man is probably the most distracting movie I’ve seen in my life. From the core concept to each plot point to how the points are executed to the subplots and down to the character arcs – everything is a walking cliché, with a glowing label of ‘being there, having done that and doing that much better’ out of a thousand similar spying- action movies in the past. Revealing what these myriad distractions are technically counts as spoilers, but I doubt anyone would consider them spoilers if I revealed how many such distractions the movie actually contains.

It’s also telling that despite the fact that there are so many similarities with so many better films in the past, the first half of the film really tests your patience, until things pick up after that. The Russo Brothers – Anthony Russo and Joe Russo – are once again demonstrating their grasp of executing technically sound action sequences and making their characters feel stylish or injecting dialogue with humorous moments, but it is their overall script (Joe Russo with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely) which is hackneyed and makes the performance heavy. Even some of the action sequences are surprisingly derived (I can’t help but keep using this word), coming from the directing duo of some of the greatest action movies ever made. Another downside is how long the movie lasts if it fails on multiple levels to hold your attention – 15-20 minutes could have been easily chopped up.

BL verdict

Overly distracted and cliché, but barely survives thanks to the dedicated performances by Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Dhanush, and two well-choreographed, lengthy action sequences – that sums up Netflix’s $200 million The Gray Man from the Russo Brothers. I go for 2.5 out of 5 stars.

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