The Gray Man

Well at least this latest Netflix effort gives us some eye candy in the form of the annoyingly ageless Ryan Gosling and a slightly hammy Chris Evans, but the rest of it is derivative even by their standards. We start with a young man being released from prison by "Fitzroy" (Tommy Lee Jones) so he can join an elite CIA hit squad. Named "Six" (Gosling), his first mission is straight out of the "Mechanic" (2011) only it's an erstwhile colleague that he is sent to eradicate. A task that proves remarkably simple but is accomplished not before, luckily for us, he is given a micro chip that illustrates his new boss "Carmichael" (an underwhelming Regé-Jean Page) is about as crooked as the day is long. There now ensues a series of long "John Wick" style combat scenes as try as this hugely well equipped CIA operation does, it simply cannot capture "Six". Desperate times call for desperate measures so "Hansen" (Evans) is drafted in to finally do the business by kidnapping the easily accessible niece of the now retired TLJ, and using her as leverage he tries a different tack. Wholesale slaughter follows and along the way some lovely buildings in Prague and Croatia become neat piles of rubble; the local citizens are dropping like flies sending those in the CIA PR department into spasms... Well you get the gist. The always over-rated Ana de Armas sports quite a colourful suit at the start, but as usual her contributions are pretty unimpressive; TLJ is nowhere near his best and the thing lurches on towards a really inevitable conclusion that stretched out the thinnest of plots and showed a really disconcerting image of a CIA completely out of control, running rampage - and that scenario isn't remotely plausible. There is plenty of car-chasing, gunfights and pyrotechnic displays but that's nowhere near enough to compensate for a pretty unremarkable script and an amalgam of stories we have seen done better elsewhere, many times before. That said, if you get a chance to see it during it's limited cinema run then I'd give it a go. On television this is just subscription fodder with A-list cows that you will instantly forget.

Seing this as another run to the mill Netflix release should not keep your hopes up. Netflix is where mediocre goes to congreate to the masses. We have another spy action movie amongst us. Last one before this was Kate, that was another bland action-spy movie. This offers absolutely NOTHING new to the table. We seen every trick this movie offer before. Over-skilled agents. Clever coreographed fight scenes, Trick tactics, agents with no names, An agency who elimintaes their own agents, expendable kill teams, plenty conspiracies and tons of action. But i have to say i enjoy Gosling alone in this one. He plays it cool. Its just shame that he is backed up with a script littered with clichés from start to end. We also have Ana De Armas who is fast becoming the new Tom Holland that appears everywhere. An actress that is milked trought the Hollywood system and spewed out to never be heard of again some day. But the movie is for sure a worthy popcorn flick with no expetations to give. On a entertainment standpoint it delivers.

Anyone thinking the CIA is anything other than awful, should in my humble opinion, take a long look at their actual history. Anyway, putting aside the predictable effort to set up this nasty little three letter acronym as virtuous, there's not a lot going on here. Its your usual rather heavy handed, cruel, cynical, US action flick. Exposition is polished but then it needs to be, because there's not a lot else on offer that I can see. Suffice to say, instantly watchable and just as forgettable. So if you want simple action and can look past the not so subtle messaging, this is a marginally alright watch.