“The Gray Man” is in constant danger of becoming a “John Wick” flick, as entertaining as those can be.
The big-budget, star-studded, spy-versus-spy affair from Netflix, which debuts in theaters this week before hitting the streaming platform next week, is so packed with action that it tiptoes the line between a squint-for-it realism and all-out lunacy.
Ultimately, the latest from Joe and Anthony Russo — the brother filmmaking tandem from northeast Ohio responsible for two of the highest-grossing movies of all time, 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” — manages to stay out of the realm of the completely ridiculous, if barely.
That it maintains an emotional center even as scenes with a significant amount of dialogue increasingly give way to those booming with gunfire and explosions makes it a winner. (And all that big-screen boom arguably makes it worth the price of a movie ticket even if you’re a Netflix subscriber.)
The Russos had been developing an adaptation of the 2009 novel of the same name by Mark Greaney for several years as they worked to crank out the aforementioned MCU affairs and others for Disney-owned Marvel Studios. The script is penned by Joe Russo and fellow MCU vets Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
The Russos found their morally challenged villain in Captain America himself, Chris Evans, while tapping Ryan Gosling as their leading man.
We are introduced to Gosling’s Court Gentry in prison, where he is being visited by a CIA man, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton, “Goliath”), there to recruit him into Sierra, a top-secret program that trains criminals to be highly skilled operatives. Court becomes Sierra Six, aka “Six,” and we next see him years later in the middle of fireworks of both the literal and figurative varieties in Bangkok.
Six is in Thailand to assassinate a high-value target, whom, he comes to discover after things go sideways, is Sierra Four. Six wonders why his boss, Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page, “Bridgerton”), would want a Sierra man dead and begins to follow a trail to the truth after getting a nudge by Four.
With Six no longer under his control, Carmichael wants him, like Four, permanently out of the picture. Once more conventional means of getting to him fail, Carmichael turns to Evans’ Lloyd Hansen, a former CIA man whose tactics proved to be too dirty for the agency to accept.
Lloyd attempts to gain leverage on Six not only by threatening the life of Fitzroy, his since-retired handler, but also that of Fitzroy’s young niece, Claire (Julia Butters, “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood”). (In flashback sequences, we see a bond that formed between Six and Claire, whose heart condition requires a pacemaker.)
Also key to the mix is a fellow CIA agent, Dani Miranda, played by Ana de Armas, who shared the screen with Evans in 2019’s “Knives Out.” Dani was with Six in Bangkok and eventually throws in with him — only after Carmichael accuses her of being in cahoots with the rogue agent.
Supporting players include Jessica Henwick (“The Matrix Resurrections”), as Susanne Brewer, a Carmichael subordinate appropriately wary of Lloyd; Alfre Woodard (“Fatherhood”), as Margaret Cahill, a former CIA bureau chief, who like her colleague Fitzroy didn’t fit with the new regime; and Dhanush, as Avik San, one of many skilled assassins who answers a call from Lloyd to kill Six.
With apologies to all the periphery characters, “The Gray Man” is almost entirely about the game of cat-and-mouse being played by Lloyd and Six.
It’s heightened by the enjoyably over-the-top performance by Evans, who seems thrilled to be chewing the scenery as the polar opposite of Captain America for the Russos. (The brothers also directed 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.”)
Gosling (“La La Land,” “Blade Runner 2049”), meanwhile, is much more subtle as Six, the movie’s titular character, operating in the gray areas of espionage work. Rarely the fiery type, Gosling runs the risk here of seeming almost disinterested at times, but his performance nonetheless is largely interesting, and he generally makes the most of the little moments.
And with apologies NOW going to Gosling and Evans, the real star of “The Gray Man” is the action. At a time when Netflix has suffered some much-talked-about subscriber losses and is in the midst of some belt-tightening, it is releasing what may be its most expensive movie. As with last year’s “Red Notice,” “The Gray Man” reportedly enjoyed a budget of $200 million.
Well, the Russos have made a lot of bang with all that buck. The action rarely stops for long, and an elaborate, extended set piece in a historic square in Prague is something to behold. According to the film’s production notes, the shoot shut down the heavily trafficked section of Prague’s Old Town for an impressive 10 days. It’s exciting stuff, much of it taking place on and around a bus made to look like a city tram.
“The Gray Man” also benefits from the ability of Dhanush, a prolific actor in Indian cinema, to handle complex fight choreography. As a result, a clash between Avik and Six and Dani has some real pop.
Disappointingly, the same can’t be said for the final confrontation between Six and Lloyd, which feels both forced and entirely unremarkable.
Still, it is easy to recommend this slick-but-not-too-slick globetrotting adventure, and it’s a solid bounce back for the Russos after last year’s “Cherry,” a disappointing based-on-a-true-story drama starring fellow MCU vet Tom Holland that landed on Apple TV+.
“The Gray Man” may have more empty calories, but it’s also tastier.
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‘THE GRAY MAN’
3 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of strong violence, and strong language)
Running time: 2:07
How to watch: In theaters Friday; streaming on Netflix July 22
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