Netflix's The Gray Man: Review

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the brothers behind Avengers: Endgame and other Marvel blockbusters. One of Netflix’s most expensive projects to date, the film — based on Mark Greaney’s novel by the same name

The Gray Man has everything you'd crave in a high-octane action movie.Six (Gosling) is a "hardened criminal" who is let out of prison to go on top-secret assassination assignments for a shady government organization.

There are plenty of fight scenes, but the actual fight choreography is frequently uninspired hand-to-hand combat. The Russos seem to know these sequences fall flat; as if to distract us, the editing is especially frenetic, bounding from location to location without concern for visual flow or spatial geography. This turns several fight scenes, including a sprawling, city-smashing car chase, into an illogical blur.

There are a few notable moments where the coverage and the edit actually click, and the fight scene that stands out the most is a simple affair involving a man, a woman, a table, and a cable. Gosling, nails gray man Six’s no-strings-attached stoicism and survival instincts.

It’s evident from the film that Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans have poured their heart and soul into their roles in The Gray Man. Both are excellent, charismatic, and quite an eyeful. Chris Evans is especially effective as the sociopath Lloyd Hansen.

The Gray Man was watched by 88.55 million hours in its first three days. Despite not hitting the top spot, it’s clear Netflix is pleased with The Gray Man’s performance – becoming the second most-watched Netflix movie this year behind Ryan Reynolds’ The Adam Project.

The Gray Man may refer to Six’s ability to disappear in plain sight, but it also speaks to the CIA’s credibility and the loyalty, or lack thereof, of its agents. Netflix’s reported interest in expanding The Gray Man into a long-term franchise, this initial chapter leaves us with a few unanswered questions that make room for promising future storylines.

What do you think about the movie?

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