Sunday, July 24, 2022

The Gray Man

The Gray Man (2022)

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Screenplay by Joe Russo and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

Based on the book by Mark Greaney 

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Billy Bob Thornton, Julia Butters, Dhanush, and Alfre Woodard

Going into this movie, I heard that it was not well received. With that in mind, I thought that the action would keep it afloat. How can a movie that has plenty of action set pieces be incredibly boring?

"Six" (Gosling) is an assassin that works the top secret Sierra Six program of CIA. On an assignment in Hong Kong, he hesitates to kill a mark. The mark tells him that his boss, Carmichael (Page) wants the Sierra Six programs gone by killing all the agents. Knowing this, Six goes on the run and reckless former CIA agent, Lloyd Hansen (Evans) is on the hunt to eliminate Six.

This movie cost $200 million dollars to make. Where did the money go? Chyrons? Those "sweeping camera shots?" Billy Bob Thornton's wigs? It looked like The Russo Brothers wanted a lot of money on spectacle. I believe it was a distraction technique to keep your eyes away from the boring action sequences.

The biggest problem with the movie is way the screenwriters and the characters dealt with the female characters. They treated them like inconsequential people. This is prevalent with the Lloyd character. He seemed like the kind of douchebag that will mansplain everything through his gross mustache. 

There was no Gray Man in the film. The filmmakers wanted it to be Six, but his moral compass was on the side of good the whole time. Where was his dip to the dark side? There was none. That's when the movie failed. It seems they took parts of the book and translated it into a formulaic, cheesy 1990s movie that doesn't work.

Rating: 2/10

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