The star-studded Netflix movie is a good idea on paper. The Gray Man probably sounded to the streamer’s executives like as close to a cinematic slam dunk as it gets. A telegenic cast, a ridiculously massive budget, gorgeous European locales, big-name directors, nonstop gun battles, and intense fight scenes — if you’ve got a bowl of popcorn and time to kill, what’s not to like?
Turns out, if you’re a professional critic, pretty much everything.
On Friday, July 22, Netflix made its debut on Friday, July 22nd. The Gray Man has rocketed all the way to #1 on the streamer’s top movies chart in the US. As far as how it’s performing globally, this Tuesday will offer our first insight on that score with Netflix’s next batch of global Top 10 charts. However, it is clear that viewers seem to be enjoying binging. The movie is separate from … well, the drubbing it’s taken from critics.
Critics haaaate The Gray Man
These are the aggregate scores Rotten TomatoesThank you for watching the movie. This movie, by the way is based upon The Gray ManMark Greaney, thriller author:
- Tomatometer score (via critics): 49%
- Audience 90%
After watching the movie, I think both scores overstate the case in favor or against. Bottom line, though: The movie — starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in a pretty straightforward, around-the-world game of cat and mouse between two elite secret agents — is nowhere near as bad as the reviews are trying to make it out to be.
This review is included. Starting at Mashable. “It feels like a mixtape, pulling bits from a bunch of much better, much more daring action movies, to create a medley that is mediocre at best.”
Both the good and the ugly
Let’s start with what I didn’t like about the film. If I had to pick one major misstep, it would be casting Rege-Jean Page as the smarmy and overly nefarious CIA head honcho. It was casting Regé-Jean Page as the movie’s smarmy and overly nefarious CIA head honcho. It’s not meant to disrespect the BridgertonStar, who is a great actor and does a good job here. But in Greaney’s books, there was a bro-y, institutional privilege and malevolence I always picked up on from the character of Denny Carmichael. And it’s impossible to be similarly disgusted with Page, try as he might.
Then there are the tropes. There’s nothing in The Gray Man you haven’t seen before. You won’t be surprised by the evil bureaucrat or the father-figure figure who identifies and releases a prisoner from his cell, where he then turns into a murderer.
But I don’t hold that against the movie. If you’re not going to give me something new? You should at least make it visually appealing. Take a look at. This Russo brothers-directed 2-hour film is a success on this score. Ana de Armas is our star, and she would still be a focal point if she was twiddling her thumbs at a desk. Plus gun battles of epic scale and Chris Evans’ scene-chewing villain. All this and more serve to remind you that the movie is only meant to entertain. You get nothing more than that.