The Gray Man

There are times when I feel I don't get enough value out of my Netflix subscription which can lead me to making poor decisions when finding something new to watch or, as some like to say in this content era, consume! Not everything stamped with the red N is bad but there's certainly a higher miss to hit ratio when it comes to Netflix's content and I reminded myself of this when watching The Gray Man. This was an expensive new action flick from the Russo brothers and in theory the first in a franchise starring Ryan Gosling but I'm not so sure we'll be seeing any more of these.

The story follows a former convict turned hired gun for a shadowy side of the CIA but finds himself made a target by his untrustworthy employers when he comes across a hard drive/McGuffin. Cue a lot of globetrotting action, double agents and twists in what should have been a fun espionage flick but is instead a dreary, overlong waste of two hours from two directors capable of much more.

While the story is far from original, films like the John Wick franchise have proven it's all a matter of execution and you can have a winning formula. But in the interest of time, The Gray Man is a soulless, emotionally empty, painfully unoriginal, cash grab of a film and way beneath the standards of Gosling's other films. This reeks of being one for the money for him, Ana de Armas, Billy Bob Thornton, Regé-Jean Page and Alfre Woodard who all do what they can with a thin screenplay. Chris Evans tries to ham it up as the unhinged villain but misses the mark. 

I'm not sure where the money went with this, besides the cast, as even the action seems cheap and very fake throughout. There isn't any suspense as baddies are thrown at our protagonist to the point of boredom and this can sit alongside the likes of other action misses like Unlocked and The Protégé which I'd rather forget. The Gray Man is unoffensively boring from start to finish and is one best left in the back catalogue of Netflix's archives to be forgotten so please do avoid this uninspired slog.