In their most recent project, Joe and Anthony Russo team up with Captain America actor Chris Evans to adapt The Gray Man into a feature film. It boasts the highest budget of any movie that Netflix has ever produced, coming in at $200 million. Based on the book by Mark Greaney, The Grey Man follows Ryan Gosling’s Court Gentry as he unearths troubling CIA information and is subsequently sought after by his former colleague, Evans’ Lloyd Hansen. Completing the supporting cast is Ana de Armas as Dani Miranda, which also includes Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Julia Butters, Dhanush, Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thornton.
After the movie premiered on Wednesday night, the reviews for the film started pouring in, bringing with it mostly underwhelming responses. Read on to know what critics are saying about the latest release.
The Gray Man Attempts To Create The James Bond Effect
Most critics accept that The Gray Man is Netflix’s overblown attempt to replicate the enchantment of blockbuster thrillers like the 007 films. BBC’s Nicholas Barber believed the movie suffered from a lack of originality and “borrows from a slew of secret agent thrillers, but doesn’t match them in quality.” Clarisse Loughrey from Independent (UK) dubs it “oddly limp and airless.”
The majority of reviews criticise its fast pace and cliched script. “While it eventually becomes watchable, it spends most of its runtime being visually and emotionally indecipherable,” remarks IGN’s Siddhant Adlakha. The Daily Telegraph mentions that “the sheer thundering mindlessness of the whole enterprise becomes impossible to ignore.” The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw writes The Gray Man has “plenty of gonzo action but no heart and no real dramatic voltage.”
Evans And Gosling Shine In The Otherwise Forgettable Film
Despite some problems, some reviewers agreed that the movie is still entertaining and that the excellent ensemble makes it worthwhile for viewers to see the big-budget blockbuster. For some, “the most exciting” seems to be “the shades the ensemble brings to their characters”, reports Variety’s Peter Debruge. Pete Hammond from Deadline calls it “an entertaining ride that is full of chases, fights and explosions.”
The cast does a good job, but the protagonists have garnered the most compliments. The Wrap lauds the lead pair in a movie “that sets the two marquee-topping actors against each other for instantly forgettable reasons.” While Empire Magazine finds them “electrically watchable”, The Hollywood Reporter doubled down on the Gosling and Evans praise, deeming the movie “most fun when Gosling and Evans engage.” Entertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt appreciates Evans by saying, “everything about Lloyd, from his fascist little moustache to his schoolyard taunts, delights him.” IndieWire’s David Ehrlich considers Gosling “a great choice to play an implosive spy with a good heart and some long-suppressed family issues.”
The Gray Man will debut in select theatres on Friday, July 15, and will premiere exclusively on Netflix on July 22.
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