The Gray Man is brainless, lacks originality, and mostly wastes its impressive arsenal of talented actors.
Overall Score: 4/10
Image: Netflix
The Gray Man features Ryan Gosling as its lead and Chris Evans as its villain, and is written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directed by the Russo brothers — all of whom collaborated on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, everything! If you were to watch this film without paying attention to the credits, there’d be no way that you would guess which filmmakers and which writers were behind it. In a sense, this abomination of an action movie is the antithesis of the aforementioned Marvel flicks. In other words, whereas those were all cinematic achievements, The Gray Man is a total dud.
Look, there are tons of generic action films out there (and there are quite a few that I actually do like), but being unoriginal and being bad are two completely different things. Take last year’s Red Notice, for instance. Yeah, it’s certainly not the most original action or heist movie that’s ever been made, but it works because it’s fun, funny, and pretty decently written.
The Gray Man, on the other hand, is one of the most uninspired pieces of cinema I’ve seen in years. The dialogue is incredibly stupid (every other line is just some dumb one-liner), the action (which is oddly dull) takes precedence over the characters and the plot, and the camerawork is so insufferably over-the-top. It’s just as terrible as your average Michael Bay film — which is ironic because Bay delivered one of my favorite movies of 2022, Ambulance.
Now, I wish I could say that the cast holds the film together, but the sad truth is that all but one actor (whom I’ll get to in a bit) is underutilized, and their talent utterly wasted. Really, it makes me question how and why they ever thought that it would be a good idea to be a part of something as terrible as this.
However, despite all of its flaws, there’s one good thing about The Gray Man, and that’s Chris Evans as the main antagonist. After having played Captain America — the human paradigm of goodness — for nearly a decade, Evans seems to be eager to take on villainous roles whenever the opportunity arises. And I don’t blame him. Here, as Lloyd Hansen, he’s fun to watch and delightfully deranged. His performance alone elevates the rest of the movie to a state of being watchable, and believe me, it’s the only thing that’s keeping me from giving it a lower score.
So, if you’re still wondering if The Gray Man is really as bad as people are saying, let me save you the trouble of having to watch it yourself. Yes, it is. It’s also by far the most disappointing film of the year. And, with more related projects including a sequel and a spin-off on the way, I can only ask this: Why, Netflix? Why?
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