‘The Gray Man’ Is Another Mediocre Netflix Mockbuster

The Grey Man (2022)

_{AGBO/rated PG-13/129 minutes}

_{Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo}

_{Screenplay by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely}

_{Based on The Gray Man by Mark Greaney}

_{Starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard, Julia Butters, Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick and Dhanush}

_{Cinematography Stephen F. Windon with Music by Henry Jackman}

_{Opening in limited theatrical release courtesy of Netflix on July 14}

As much as any would-be blockbuster to come out of the Netflix pipeline over the last five years, The Gray Man is less a full-on movie than a skewed approximation of something resembling a movie. It has big movie stars (Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas), prestige character actors (Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard stealing the movie in their sleep) and some promising newbies (Regé-Jean Page and Julia Butters). All parties do their best with thinly sketched characters) and blockbuster directors (Anthony and Joe Russo) trying their absolute best to make it look like a $200 million action thriller. While the instruments are all in place, the music never comes together, and the notes mostly fall flat. Despite genuine production values and impressive stunt work, the film never escapes the core notion of merely playacting a theoretical motion picture.

The picture, lensed by Stephen F. Windron (who shot several Fast and Furious sequels), gets off to a promising start. While we don’t have much reason to root for Court Gentry (Gosling) beyond the “he avoids collateral damage” variable, the curtain-raiser offers travelogue locales and plenty of colorful momentum as our hero improvises but gets into a brawl with his target. The mark provides a complication before dying, which puts a target on his back. Further conflict ensues when desperate higher-ups enlist a loose cannon lunatic of an asset (Evans) to take out our hero no matter the cost. The film spins itself silly to make it feel expansive while burying its simple plot (the good guy must save his mentor and the mentor’s niece and kill the bad guy) under a deluge of misdirection and internal confusion.

Based upon Mark Greaney’s novel, The Grey Man features two big movie stars as the strong, silent good guy assassin and the cackling bad guy assassin. While the stunts look practical and the scale is impressive, the editing and staging render much of the showdowns painfully chaotic. The film’s major centerpiece set piece, an admittedly huge and ultraviolent multipronged assault and escape (with so much collateral damage that it would likely start World War III), can’t help but pale compared to a similar (if less horrific) city street showdown from The Winter Soldier. Sheer size notwithstanding, the action sequences are less coherent and compelling than Extraction, which Joe Russo wrote for Sam Hargrave to direct (for Netflix) two years ago. It’s not that the action is “bad” (although the first-act airplane scuffle is an eyesore) so much that it’s often generic and unmemorable.

Gosling says and does little of entertainment value, which is more about the screenplay that positions him as a generic action figure. Ditto Ana de Armas as Gosling’s reluctant tag-along gal. Evans chews up the scenery, but most of his one-liners and zingers come off as preordained memes and gif moments that exist in a vacuum. All three of them do little more than remind us of better movies where they played similar characters. Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard, playing two elder agents trying to survive with dignity as the world passes them by, do their best to elevate their material. Rising star Julia Butters holds her own even though she is quickly made a full-time hostage/damsel. Perhaps by default, the attempt by this film to recapture the glory days of the Hollywood action movie can’t help but revert to past-their-time tropes and cliches.

You bet our stars will eventually throw down their weapons and beat each other senseless. The brisk 129-minute adventure expects us to care about government operatives being secretly corrupt and root for incriminating intel being leaked to the press hopefully resulting in justice being done. Granted, the swift disappearance of specific genres (like the rom-com) has left critics and pundits (mea culpa) willing to relish a new offering (like Marry Me) precisely because it feels flash-frozen from another era. However, as shown from Extraction (which positioned Hemsworth as the secondary lead in the action climax) and 21 Bridges (which had a Sydney Lumet-worthy distrust of cops and awareness of systemic corruption), you can make a throwback that doesn’t feel like a relic. Save for more inclusive casting and an extended third-act appearance by Dhanush, little in The Gray Man feels modern or relevant.

Much of the Russos’ non-MCU work (both as directors and as producers via their AGBO production company) has been about making the kind of big-budget, star-driven action movies (Chadwick Boseman’s 21 Bridges and Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction) and character dramas (Tom Holland’s Cherry) that have mostly been canceled out in theaters because of the MCU. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a crucial release in terms of Marvel approximating a genre (in this case, Tom Clancy in tights) with an entry that surpassed the genuine article (in this case, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit). The Russos’ Captain America sequels defined how the MCU replaced the “just a movie” studio programmer via their all-quadrant value (colorful superheroes for kids, ass-kicking espionage-y action thrills for adults). The Gray Man is another example of repentance and theoretical redemption, again starring a prominent MCU actor.

Perhaps because of the budget or global franchise aspirations, The Gray Man has little on its mind beyond nostalgia for films that flourished in a pre-MCU (or even pre-9/11) world. It’s not Disney’s fault audiences stopped showing up to non-event movies and started treating Marvel and DC movies as a one-stop show for blockbuster thrills and genre filmmaking. Netflix is more practically responsible for the new normal. That makes The Gray Man’s existence even more ironic as yet another would-be Hollywood mockbuster. Like Red Notice, it falls short of the genuine article. It is another bet that consumers will accept lower quality for at-home convenience, even if there is clearly more effort and onscreen production value on display. I applaud Netflix for getting folks to watch non-IP star-driven studio programmers. I wish they didn’t feel like direct-to-VHS approximations of the genuine article.