The Gray Man (2022) Review

Directors: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.

Casts: Ryan Gosling as Six, Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen, Ana de Armas as Dani Miranda, Billy Bob Thornton as Fitzroy, Jessica Henwick as Suzanne Brewer, Dhanush as Avik San, Alfre Woodard as Margaret Cahill, Regé-Jean Page as Carmichael

Introduction

The Gray man is a comedy, action thriller released in the United Kingdom on the 15th of July by Netflix. It is based on Mark Greaney’s debut novel, The Gray Man. The series has 11 books, with the first book being the gray man. Jove Books released this novel in 2009. The Gray Man is the first novel to feature an assassin and former CIA agent.

The Russo brothers direct the Gray man. The Russo brothers are most known for producing some MCU movies: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).  

Synopsis

When a prisoner – Courtland Gentry, is recruited to join the deep-cover Sierra program, he discovers some dirty agency secrets during a mission. He is chased around the world by a sociopathic former agent who will stop at nothing to get him.

Review

The Gray man started in Florida state prison in the year 2003. It began with Donald Fitzroy trying to strike a deal with Courtland Gentry, who was imprisoned for murder. Donald offered the prisoner an deal that his prison sentence would be commuted if he ended up taking it. But unfortunately, the deal was to work for the CIA to help them do their dirty jobs, killing bad guys. Out of desperation to get out of the prison, Gentry ends up taking the deal.

The CIA trains Courtland Gentry and gives a new name, Six. He says ‘007 was taken’, by you-know-who so… six was probably the only vacant number. He is put in an elite unit, the Sierra program, where he can perform his duty. Danny Carmichael, his center chief, assigns Six a mission. The mission is to take down Sierra Four, a fellow agent of the Sierra program. Just before Four dies, he lets Six know that his center chief is not who he claims to be. Four tells Six that Danny is a bad guy and gives him intel to support this claim. Four are left to die as intended.

Danny sends agents to search Four’s body to see if they can retrieve the intel that discredits him. When the intel is discovered missing, Danny calls Six to question him, but it is to no avail. Based on Danny’s conversation with Six, he assumes that Six has the intel. So Danny decides to send out Lloyd Hansen, a sociopathic agent who has no limit to where he can go to achieve the goal of retrieving the compromising information and ‘make Six disappear.’

The Gray Man featured great actors and actresses to play different roles.

The role of Chris Evans was fascinating because I am used to seeing him as a hero, so, seeing him as a villain, I was curious to see how he would perform. In this movie, Chris decides to try out a different role, the role of a villain. He did the same with Knives out, an entertaining drama/thriller released in 2019. Chris was offered the hero role but declined, saying he wanted to play the villain. He played the role well. Being the sociopathic, mean but likable villain with his mustache that made him look like Adolf Hitler, he brought life to his personality of Hansen.

Ryan Gosling and Ana De Armas are also characters that played very impressive roles. They keep impressing me with their performances, especially Ana De Armas. Her role in James Bond, now this? Hopefully, we will see her star in her own action movie.

For Ryan, he’s charming, attractive, amusing, and has impeccable comedic timing. These features of him add quality to his role though he effectively plays a hero who is skillful but quiet. You can see that even from his one-liners.

This movie pleased me in so many ways: It is funny and entertaining. The sounds and scores were good.

Although the movie was entertaining, it was a bit too long. 2 hours’ run time? That should have been reduced.

There is no proper character development for some characters. The scriptwriters did not develop Gosling’s character correctly. Of course, we wondered where all the money Netflix spent for this production went, but as with so many other massive productions nowadays, it doesn’t matter if the CGI, actors, or staff travel expenditures were expensive; the fault is in the script. Creating characters and a plot is the art of script writing. If you don’t understand why things happen, you don’t care, and the plot’s twists lose much of their promise.

The action scenes were good, although you could see that it was choreographed. However, despite being marketed at the action spy thriller market and a James Bond or Janson Borne rip-off, it falls short of depth. So we have a succession of frantic action sequences with little to tie them together.

I feel more could have been achieved for a movie that was produced with 200 million. Unfortunately, companies with enormous expenditures, such as Netflix and Disney, continue to produce subpar content. For example, the Man from Toronto and Lightyear, respectively. I wonder if they spend every dime on CGI? Don’t get me wrong, The Gray Man’s writing isn’t horrible, but perhaps we can expect better given they have an almost massive budget.

Despite its flaws, The Gray Man is a good movie. It is worth watching and re-watching; I recommend it to any action and thriller lover above 15. I can assure you of laughter and thrills. I would watch it again if I get the chance.

Similar genre – The Man from Toronto

You can watch the gray man on Netflix or download it here