"Trash 'stache," as assassin Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) remarks about extreme bad guy Lloyd Hansen's (Chris Evans) look.
Nothing gray about The Gray Man with two A-list stars chasing each other for the CIA around the globe quipping and killing in some very posh, mysterious locations like Prague, Bangkok, and London. Six ("007 was taken") is colder hearted and more deadly than Bond ever was. Lloyd is just heartless and uncool.
Yet the deficiency is that Bond usually has verbal dexterity fully within hearing distance-Six (Gosling far from his memorable taciturn Drive persona), and his pursuer Lloyd (evens leagues away from his Captain America persona), are never speaking more than a sentence or two over loud explosions. You got it, this stylish Netflix thriller is all about Russo Brothers' action dexterity (They helmed such Marvel spectaculars as Avengers Endgame), which is fully in view and satisfying from a surface point of view.
Case in point: one sequence in a Prague square has Six handcuffed to a stone bench fighting off world-class murderers, who use an amount of ammo that might give even the NRA pause. Cost $40 million-- 20% of the $200 million for the whole film.
The Gray Man (Grays are elite assassins with almost license to kill) has Russo hyperactivity all over it-barely a minute or two before the next set piece that includes a hairy escape from a plummeting plane (a sequence fit for Tom Cruise). Breathless stuff that could have given more room to breaths that speak--most of the time it makes no sense, but, hey, what did you expect for 200 mil?
The heart of this action film for me is Billy Bob Thornton's Fitzroy, an elderly CIA member caught by Lloyd in a blackmail over Fitzroy's teen age niece, Claire (Julia Butters), who has a heart condition. Not only is the connection warm, but also his paternal/mentor relationship with Six is almost normal were it not for the bad guys that interfere by doing such nasty things as shooting at Six and kidnapping Suzanne. Six's banter with Claire and his colleague Dani (Ana de Armas) show that he has a light side and some verbal capabilities, but no enough to take the film to a higher dramatic level.
The Gray Man may be Netflix's best action flick so far, not a high bar, that can be seen as well in theaters, which I recommend for the full effect of Russo visual magic. Otherwise, see Mrs Harris Goes to Paris for a more coherent and relaxing Euro trip.
Nothing gray about The Gray Man with two A-list stars chasing each other for the CIA around the globe quipping and killing in some very posh, mysterious locations like Prague, Bangkok, and London. Six ("007 was taken") is colder hearted and more deadly than Bond ever was. Lloyd is just heartless and uncool.
Yet the deficiency is that Bond usually has verbal dexterity fully within hearing distance-Six (Gosling far from his memorable taciturn Drive persona), and his pursuer Lloyd (evens leagues away from his Captain America persona), are never speaking more than a sentence or two over loud explosions. You got it, this stylish Netflix thriller is all about Russo Brothers' action dexterity (They helmed such Marvel spectaculars as Avengers Endgame), which is fully in view and satisfying from a surface point of view.
Case in point: one sequence in a Prague square has Six handcuffed to a stone bench fighting off world-class murderers, who use an amount of ammo that might give even the NRA pause. Cost $40 million-- 20% of the $200 million for the whole film.
The Gray Man (Grays are elite assassins with almost license to kill) has Russo hyperactivity all over it-barely a minute or two before the next set piece that includes a hairy escape from a plummeting plane (a sequence fit for Tom Cruise). Breathless stuff that could have given more room to breaths that speak--most of the time it makes no sense, but, hey, what did you expect for 200 mil?
The heart of this action film for me is Billy Bob Thornton's Fitzroy, an elderly CIA member caught by Lloyd in a blackmail over Fitzroy's teen age niece, Claire (Julia Butters), who has a heart condition. Not only is the connection warm, but also his paternal/mentor relationship with Six is almost normal were it not for the bad guys that interfere by doing such nasty things as shooting at Six and kidnapping Suzanne. Six's banter with Claire and his colleague Dani (Ana de Armas) show that he has a light side and some verbal capabilities, but no enough to take the film to a higher dramatic level.
The Gray Man may be Netflix's best action flick so far, not a high bar, that can be seen as well in theaters, which I recommend for the full effect of Russo visual magic. Otherwise, see Mrs Harris Goes to Paris for a more coherent and relaxing Euro trip.