Back in 2014, the Russo brothers’ first MCU film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, was hailed for its homage to the ’70s-style conspiracy thriller. Even though Steve Rogers had been awakened by an increasingly cynical and pernicious time and place, his lengthy shadow cast by classic paranoid films such as Three Days of the Condor and All the President’s Men still loomed large over him. There are four movies in the Russo brothers’ canon now, nine years after their last outing (the MCU victories Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and the misfired PTSD drama Cherry).
Based on Mark Greaney’s book, The Gray Man is a cat-and-mouse espionage thriller adapted by Joe for The Winter Soldier. Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling, returned from a self-imposed four-year exile after alleging overexposure) is the titular antihero, a CIA black-books operator freed from serving a three-decade term at Florida State Prison. Until he’s sent to hunt down a BAD GUY who turns out to be something more sinister and gives Six access to dark agency secrets, Sierra Six, as they’ve dubbed him, is the best they’ve got. An independent contractor who is not bound by the rules of the CIA, Lloyd Hansen (Cap, Chris Evans), is now on the trail of our man. The program’s head (played by Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page, totally dressed) boasts, “He has a murder count higher than the whole Mossad.” Hansen also has a garbage ‘tache, an arsenal of one-liners, and a psychopathic disposition. Even when his explosive takedown of Gentry fails yet again, it does enough damage to fill many mortuaries. “You want to cook an omelette, you must murder some people,” he smugly shrugs.
There are just two things that set the Gray Man apart from the others. Gosling’s typical austerity (always chewing gum, he has little time for words) and Evans’ chirpy grotesque perfectly balance each other off. Aside from that, there are a growing number of progressively over-the-top action sequences filmed on trains, trams, and vehicles, such as a two-month-long gunfight in Prague that seems like the conclusion of The Wild Bunch mixed with the demolition derby from The Blue Brothers.
As Hansen calls in “every grade-A wet squad from here to Reykjavik,” The Gray Man remembers the Bourne films and the two action figureheads Johns, Woo and Wick. Gentleman Gentry, on the other hand, is always ready to kick ass and is never without bubble gum in his mouth. At the very least, for a Friday-night popcorn, a movie’s set pieces and actors are usually sufficient. However, the intricate mayhem falls short of the high standards set by the Russos in the MCU just a few times (especially in The Winter Soldier).
They’re also, like Michael Bay in Ambulance, much too taken with the latest in drone technology, as the camera repeatedly zips past the film’s tense protagonists and careens down a street, barrel-rolling along the way. It’s anyone’s guess why it does this other than the fact that it looks cool. You could wish that the Russo brothers had left their toys in the box until they figured out the overall style of the film if you’re being honest with yourself. The Gray Man, a film whose murkiness is neither melancholy nor melancholic but rather flat and drab, is sure to stoke Film Twitter disputes about how cinematography is rapidly disappearing.
When it comes to real-life fights (think of Roger Moore’s Bond vs Bourne or Wick), things don’t get better and better. The sabre-toothed scuffles here pack a significant punch, with the hits hitting with the same force as they did in the legendary Cap against Iron Man fight from Civil War. Ana de Armas, who plays Agent Dani, a type of ally for Six, also makes an appearance in the series as Agent Dani. Her pin is in place and she’s not permitted to detonate like Bond’s colleague spy Paloma in No Time To Die, but glimpses of Miranda’s elegance and enthusiasm can still be seen in her performance.
If The Gray Man is a hit with audiences, she’ll almost certainly have a larger part in any sequels or possibly a spin-off film. With the 12th book in the series due out next year, there’s a lot of unexplored territory in this adaptation of Greaney’s debut novel. We’ll have to wait and see how the story progresses. Because, despite the fact that The Gray Man bursts out of the gate, that’s all there is to it. Top Gun: Maverick just reminded us what a blockbuster can be, therefore we need more Gray in future excursions. In theatres and on Netflix, The Gray Man premieres July 15 and 22.