The Gray Man

From the writers and directors of Avengers: Endgame, The Gray Man was released by Netflix at the end of July. The Gray Man follows ex-convict, Six (Ryan Gosling), as he is recruited by the CIA to run covert missions that the CIA cannot officially handle. When Six uncovers a conspiracy from inside the CIA, he becomes the target of sociopath Llyod Hansen (Chris Evans) who will stop at nothing to bring Six down.

The Gray Man was a fun enough action movie. It has some pretty good action sequences such as the train sequence or the opening action sequence. Part of what helped with the action sequences was that the movie had a $200 million budget which is pretty uncommon for a streaming film. The larger budget made for more explosions and more complicated and exciting action sequences. The movie also had some splashes of humor in there that are sprinkled in to lighten to mood and got a chuckle out of me every once in a while. Another stand out of this movie was Chris Evans as the villain. It was fun to see him play more of a jerk/ villain role especially after seeing him play the honorable good guy for 10 years with Captain America. He is definitely one of the more memorable characters in the film, with his crazy yet somewhat funny portrayal of the character. Finally, the movie reminds me a lot of James Bond and Mission Impossible films with just the tone of the movie. This movie took what worked for Mission Impossible and James Bond and basically just did that which works for me as I really enjoy those types of movies.

The main hang-up of this film is just that is a pretty generic action movie. There isn't anything that makes it stand out and none of the main characters, aside from Chris Evans, are really all that memorable. There also isn't all that much to the plot as it is just a standard action movie plot. In the end, it is basically just a run-of-the-mill action movie with a ridiculously high budget. It kept me entertained but is not something I'll really remember.

Overall, this film is an entertaining enough B-list action movie. Though considering the talent behind the camera and the budget, you would think it would stand out more than it does.

Score 7/10 Grade: B Recommendation: If you like action movies, it is worth checking out.