The Gray Man, a Netflix original, is a fairly nonstop action film based on the book action/thriller series by Mark Greaney. Ryan Gosling plays the title character, The Gray Man, also known as: Sierra Six. I watched it twice within its first week of release. I can’t remember the last movie I watched the entire way through and then turned around and rewatched it. The Gray Man was so well done that I could rewatch it at any point and enjoy it still, and equally as much as the previous times.
The movie was directed by the Russo Brothers, who directed a handful of the MCU movies, including Infinity War and Endgame, and their direction of the Gray Man was solid, and intentional, although I can understand why someone might claim that it was sloppy, at times the pace of the movie may have come across as rushed. The script, however, which has also been criticized for being cliché, allowed for the pace (there wasn’t a lot of dialogue), and the dialogue may, too, have been cliché but it was witty, and it moved the story along at two separate intervals and if you missed something, a quip, for example, it may have been possible to lose your footing. And it was all actually done quite well, considering how easy it is to f$&k something like that up.
Ryan Gosling was cast perfectly. I wouldn’t have imagined Gosling playing the part but after watching it, I can’t impress enough how good his performance was. Chris Evan, on the other hand, was not so perfectly cast, and it seemed as if his presence was more of shock value, or maybe he was perfect, and I just can’t get past the mustache.
If you have Netflix, you’ve probably seen the movie by now, still one of the shortcomings to living in our society today is that many critics—a synonym now for anyone with a television and a smartphone—don’t know how to positively review a movie, people tend, now, to voice their opinion only to trash a thing, especially since they think that will spark some viral outcry. However, the Gray Man is a great action movie and I suggest that you find a way to watch it with no alternative motive except of course to simply enjoy it because, if you can do that, it would not have been a waste of your time.