Courtesy of Netflix
The Gray Man is the latest highly anticipated movie to stream on Netflix. The film has a terrific cast: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Rege-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, and Billy Bob Thornton. The film is directed by The Russo Brothers who are known for directing the Avengers films for Marvel. With a cast like this and The Russo Brothers, you would expect this movie to be great. The Gray Man fails to hit the mark of being great.
The Gray Man had the next great action film. What I saw was a good action film ruined by a mediocre story and bad dialogue. Ryan Gosling stars as Court Gentry, a prisoner who gets recruited by the CIA to be an agent. He gets recruited by Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) to be a part of a special unit. 18 years later, Fitzroy is now retired and his position has been taken over by Denny Carmichael (Rege-Jean Page). Carmichael is a corrupt director that only has his best interests in mind. Gentry recognizes this when he finds out he has been assigned to kill someone in his Sierra unit. Gentry knows he's next on the list to be killed.
Carmichael assigns Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to kill Gentry. Hansen is a villain straight out of an 80s' movie. He's over the top and says the most ridiculous things. Even though the character is corny and cheesy, Evans portrays him really well. The problem is his over the top character doesn't fit in today's movie climate. It reminded me of a cheesy 80s villain. Hansen has his own ways of killing Gentry which cause problems for Carmichael's second in command Suzanne (Jessica Henwick). Suzanne tries to do the right thing unlike Carmichael and Hansen. Jessica Henwick is a good actress but she has nothing to do in this film. Same can be said for Ana de Armas who plays Dani Miranda. She helps Court against Hansen but is wasted in this film.
What keeps The Gray Man from being a great action film is the dialogue and story. The dialogue in this movie is so bad, I think I can write a better script. The characters have no personality except for Court Gentry and Lloyd Hansen. Everyone else just felt bland especially Carmichael. Carmichael's dialogue sounded like it was written by a 12 year old. The story is just okay, typical of an action movie. What makes The Gray Man a good action film is the action itself. The action scenes are good and the camera work is great. There's no shaky cam when Court and Lloyd are fighting and no unnecessary cuts as well. The set pieces in this film are great as well. It has an international feel because of all the countries that are represented in the film.
The Gray Man is a decent action film with good action but terrible dialogue and an okay story. The film could have been much better with improvements to the dialogue and story. What saves the film from being horrible is the good action from Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. While it is not a great film by any stretch of imagination, The Gray Man is a serviceable Netflix film that will keep audiences entertained.
Grade: B-
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