Jump to content

The Gray Man

JohnC

By JohnC,
in Film, TV & Radio

 Share

Recommended Posts

JohnC

JohnC

Posted
Posted

The Russo Brothers $200m action movie for Netflix. Stars Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Chris Evans dodgy moustache, Jessica Henwick, Ana de Armas, Wagner Moura, Dhanush, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard, Regé-Jean Page, Julia Butters, Eme Ikwuakor and Scott Haze.

 

Gosling is The Gray Man, a CIA merc who uncovers something he shouldn't. So Evans, a CIA former colleague, has to hunt him down.

 

Based on a series of books, they hope for it to begin a movie franchise. Coming to Netflix on 22 July

 

 

3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Loik V credern

Loik V credern

Posted
Posted

Yeah I've been waiting for the trailer too, just all new Gosling I'm interested in. 

 

I'd seen clips and pictures and with it being by the Russo brothers I hoped it could overcome that disadvantage, Gosling doesn't attach himself to anything that's bland (apart from Gangster Squad, but perhaps he just wanted to do a 30s gangster film) so with that said...not sure why he wanted to do it. Especially as they want to do a number of them. He's done action before, briefly. It's not new territory for him that shows how much of a badass he can be, we know...a 30 second scene in Drive was all it took. 

 

Matt Damon wasn't getting any offers before The Bourne Identity (or so he always says), not that would be the reason to do it because I think it's the best of the lot and the best example of its thing there is this century.

 

A comment on reddit said Gosling has entered the Gyllenhaul 'having fun' phase of his career but Gyllenhaul has always done macho roles (the so awful it must be satire but isn't End of Watch and Southpaw) so Ambulance is not that much different. Jessica Chastain has also done a number of the most generic action films where her acting is completely wasted...again a mystery, except she'd not done action previously and presumably was desperate. 

 

It's just horrifically directed, if the laziness is there in the framing, the terrible use of cgi, that most awful yellow European city glow as seen in the Hitman's Bodyguard, then it's not elevating above its genre. I wonder how much of the $200m went on the cast. 

 

Not watched the Mission Impossible trailer yet...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Loik V credern

Loik V credern

Posted
Posted

Bradshaw gave it 2/5. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/14/the-gray-man-review-ryan-gosling-goes-rogue-in-gonzo-action-thriller

 

his reviews are weird, chunk of the plot unnecessarily described past the setup, then some creative writing then...end. 

 

Quote

The movie zooms manically from exotic industry-tax-break location to exotic industry-tax-break location, each announced on screen in huge sans serif capital letters (VIENNA, PRAGUE, BAKU). There’s plenty of gonzo action but no heart and no real dramatic voltage.

 

Gosling is one of the few actors who I think elevates lines of dialogue in surprising ways, still want to see this for that reason. Or the Tom Hardy thing of doing films based on a few scenes he'd like to do, so you're nonplussed then there's some dramatic scene he does that leaves you breathless. Child 44 was like that. 

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Gambit

Gambit

Posted
Posted

I'm guessing the 200 million budget didn't go on the CGI. There's a plane sequence in this that looked better in Uncharted 3.

 

It's no wonder Netflix is in the shit when they spend that sort of money on this. 

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gambit

Gambit

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, cassidy said:

Russo's can smash an action sequence. 

 

 

 

Can they though? Winter Soldier and Civil War they could, but here? That opening fight sequence was badly lit and impossible to follow, same with most of the others I've seen so far. It's almost like at times we were slowly digressing to Bourne Identity levels of shakiness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

Posted
Posted

Yep, the action is a definite step down from their other films. From what I’ve seen anyway. Only got about forty-five minutes into it and gave up. Will probably go through the rest of it tomorrow, see if it improves.

 

Also, why can’t modern blockbusters just tell a story in a straight line without a million flashbacks? I get fed up of stories grinding to a halt when a title card saying “two years earlier” pops up on screen. Gray Man does this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JPL

JPL

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Gambit said:

 

Can they though? Winter Soldier and Civil War they could, but here? That opening fight sequence was badly lit and impossible to follow, same with most of the others I've seen so far. It's almost like at times we were slowly digressing to Bourne Identity levels of shakiness.

Sorry to be pedantic and I’ve not even seen this film, but Bourne Identity was the only one that didn’t have shaky-cam and was all the better for it.

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pelekophoros

Pelekophoros

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, JPL said:

Sorry to be pedantic and I’ve not even seen this film, but Bourne Identity was the only one that didn’t have shaky-cam and was all the better for it.

 

I think the best you could argue about BI was that it was less shaky than the sequels, and than what shaky cam became after it. It definitely wasn't locked, it definitely did wobbles and weird zooms, and it definitely had over enthusiastic cuts to try to accentuate the fighting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Loik V credern

Loik V credern

Posted
Posted

Bourne Identity is my favourite of the 5, or anything of its ilk. It's a classic i think, how many of these films avoid being generic. It wasn't a cheap vehicle for action, wasn't hacky. The sequels weren't either, tbf, just went too far into attempts at visceral realism. Not seen 4 or 5.

 

Gosling was on The One show and said he'd wanted to do an action film, not just a film that has action in it, so had been looking for something for a while. It's a shame the Russo brothers had to exist in the same time as Gosling was looking and that his agent didn't say to him 'stay away from these guys, they're hacks, people think they're good because they did some average action in shit marvel films that didn't usually have anything, and you know the shit taste of marvel fans' but i guess Gosling didn't have that kind of guidance and his agent let him down. Hopefully he's not locked into a series of increasingly more generic films as he gets injured doing them and can't find the time and energy to do interesting stuff like Barbie.

3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mr Do 71

Mr Do 71

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, Monkeyboy said:

Yep, the action is a definite step down from their other films. From what I’ve seen anyway. Only got about forty-five minutes into it and gave up. Will probably go through the rest of it tomorrow, see if it improves.

 

Also, why can’t modern blockbusters just tell a story in a straight line without a million flashbacks? I get fed up of stories grinding to a halt when a title card saying “two years earlier” pops up on screen. Gray Man does this.


It must be a Netflix thing, as I’ve just started watching Kate https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7737528/ and it’s got the massive text across the screen so we know what city it is and then after the intro we skip forward 10 months.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sandman

sandman

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Loik V credern said:

Bourne Identity is my favourite of the 5, or anything of its ilk. It's a classic i think, how many of these films avoid being generic. It wasn't a cheap vehicle for action, wasn't hacky. The sequels weren't either, tbf, just went too far into attempts at visceral realism. Not seen 4 or 5.

 

Gosling was on The One show and said he'd wanted to do an action film, not just a film that has action in it, so had been looking for something for a while. It's a shame the Russo brothers had to exist in the same time as Gosling was looking and that his agent didn't say to him 'stay away from these guys, they're hacks, people think they're good because they did some average action in shit marvel films that didn't usually have anything, and you know the shit taste of marvel fans' but i guess Gosling didn't have that kind of guidance and his agent let him down. Hopefully he's not locked into a series of increasingly more generic films as he gets injured doing them and can't find the time and energy to do interesting stuff like Barbie.

I think the Russo Brothers are incredibly overrated. I’ve only loved one of their films (Infinity War) with the rest being good at best 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thor

Thor

Posted
Posted

I thought this was alright, but the comments about the action are spot on, I found myself tuning out, especially during the finale. Though the final fight was decent. 

 

Great performances from the main trio though. Evans in particular was fun to watch. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jonamok

jonamok

Posted
Posted

I thought this was entirely serviceable. Decent stunts and set pieces, undermined by ridiculously obnoxious “look at me” drone shots, and a shite macguffin. Main three cast were fun, but a shame that Billy Bob was rather under-used.

 

Inoffensive 6.5/10.

2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Use of this website is subject to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Guidelines.

  I accept