THE GRAY MAN

Netflix hires on The Russo Brothers along with a star studded cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, and Billy Bob Thornton to push a mediocre script. The premise here is Sierra Six (Gosling) is in prison with a lengthy sentence for a murder he committed at a young age. Fitzroy (Thornton) works for the CIA and entices Six to work for them by commuting his sentence. Tasked with exterminating enemies of the state, we then pick up Six on a mission in Bangkok on New Year's. His target is a former operative like himself, Sierra Four, who's gone rogue by downloading sensitive information about their superior and is selling it to the highest bidder. Six follows through on his mission although rather than turning in the sensitive date, he keeps it in order to shed light on the shenanigans that have been going on within the agency. Attempting to tie up all loose ends, his superior enlists Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a prior Sierra himself who was kicked out for his propensity towards violence, torture, and other extreme methods. Now a civilian, Hansen isn't restricted in the ways he was prior working for the government. It was refreshing to see Evans embrace a darker role playing the psychopathic villain with his Freddie Mercury mustache and chic sense of style (even if he only apparently wears smediums the entire film). However, with him famously coming off of his Steve Rogers/Captain America role in the MCU, as an audience member it's hard to buy in to his character as he comes off as very playful but also may be holding back some. The only other character of note is young Claire Fitzroy played by Julia Butters who you may remember from Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD as sassy young actress Trudi. Outside of that, Netflix is banking on the star power to reel in audiences but yet again, once they're there, the film doesn't live up. Action scenes are plenty but jerky and convoluted. Gosling is detached, even though he secretly would do anything to prevent any harm coming to Claire. A decent film but I've seen better from everyone involved. 6/10