MOVIE REVIEW – Netflix’s action thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans offers more action than excitement. Nomen est omen: although the action is almost unrelenting, the story is “grey”, unimaginative and uninspired.

The Grey Man is the most expensive production in Netflix’s history, with a budget reportedly in the region of $200 million. So many subscribers are still needed – and their numbers are dwindling… And what did all that money go for? If you’ve been dying to see Prague’s old town blown to pieces in an epic shootout, then The Grey Man is the one you’ve been waiting for. By any other standards, The Grey Man is drab and mediocre.

Directed by the Russo brothers (“Avengers: Infinity War”, “Avengers: Endgame”). Based on the 2009 novel by Mark Greaney, the film was released on Netflix on Friday and is available in suburban theaters in the US.

Ryan Gosling, “The Six”

Ryan Gosling plays the title character, also known as “The Six,” a good guy CIA assassin, at least as good a guy as a bad guy CIA assassin can be who is being hunted by a bad guy CIA assassin (unlike The Six, he’s already under contract to the CIA). There’s no shortage of locations and action: in addition to bullet-riddled Prague, the locations include Baku, Bangkok, Berlin, Croatia, Hong Kong, Langley (of course), London, Vienna and Washington D.C. The part of the $200 million not spent on bullets has clearly gone on the travel budget and the stars – most notably Chris Evans, who plays Gosling’s nemesis.

Ryan Gosling’s performance is mostly that of the usual stoic action hero, who gets away with 80% of the film with a single facial expression. It’s no use: playing a character with a number does that to an actor. Six chews a toothpick while performing the task. He occasionally chews gum and winks at least twice in inappropriate situations, but that’s more to compensate for the unimaginative and unimpressive dialogue.

Chris Evans: maniacal evil

His character, Lloyd Hansen, is a truly frightening combination: a sociopath who babbles on and on and went to Harvard. Lloyd is, in the words of Dungeon Keeper 2, “evil and enjoying it”. It’s easy to understand Evans’ obvious delight in playing Lloyd. His character is in fact a bad-boy version of Steve Rogers, which makes sense for the Russos, who directed the last two Captain America films with Evans. Instead of wearing his trademark shield, this Captain America Without America wears his trademark moustache. He’s also a bit like a “funnier”, more upbeat Henry Cavill from Mission Impossible Aftermath, who in that film also played a mustachioed, good-looking, evil CIA agent who was also the arch-nemesis. That’s it, Chris, you’re busted.

And then we know from that that Six is the good guy and Lloyd is the bad guy what company they keep. Six has two protectors, retired senior agency officials played by Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard. Thornton, who is turning quite a nice shade of grey (he should be the title character), is fine. Woodard is even more stoic than Gosling, although he at least tries to narrow his eyes to give him some weight.

Hansen’s men – not that he ever follows anyone’s orders – are two high-ranking CIA agents who are a little too eager to be even higher-ranking, if you know what I mean. They’re played by Regé-Jean Page (“Bridgerton”) and Jessica Henwick (“Game of Thrones,” “Rise of the Matrix”). Actually, both performances and characters would be fine if they got more screen time. It makes your heart bleed a little that you don’t see these characters in a more realistic spy series where 80% of the movie doesn’t have to be about everything exploding and everyone getting shot to pieces.

Then there’s Ana de Armas, who alongside Ryan Gosling already played his virtual AI “girlfriend” in Blade Runner 2049, and here she plays a CIA agent who starts on one side and ends up on the other. She’s also familiar with the role: she played a CIA action heroine in last autumn’s James Bond film No Time to Die. If you like the pretty actress in this role, you’re in for a treat: here comes the John Wick spin-off, where she’ll be shooting again like there’s no tomorrow.

Finally, there’s child actress Julia Butters, who made such a big impression in Hollywood as a child actress in Once Upon a Time in… Playing the niece of Thornton’s character, she’s sulking, scared and frightened of the main characters. She didn’t have to exert herself too much.

Michael Bay would direct it

For those who like minimally realistic spy movies, The Grey Man is best avoided as the action sequences are primarily reminiscent of Michael Bay or John Woo films. Of course, it’s an action movie; why am I teasing you? What action movie is realistic, right? The problem is that it reaches a ridiculous level in The Grey Man. The Prague shootout might work if it were a movie comedy, so absurd is its action. But it doesn’t, so instead of getting really excited, we’d rather just do a facepalm in these. Plus, the constant shooting, the constant travel, the constant ribbing of Lloyd, after a while, it gets awfully repetitive and tiresome.

The Russos have said they are hoping for a Netflix “Grey’s Man” franchise. Greaney has written a dozen novels for the series, so the material is there. No doubt that explains why several essential plot threads have been left pending. If The Grey Man didn’t happen to be a dozen-a-dozen action movie, we might even be happy about that…

-BadSector-