Reviews for MCU-style shared universe.
The Gray Man follows Gosling's globe-trotting assassin Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six, a former convict recruited by the CIA. On a mission in Bangkok, the killer for hire finds himself in possession of a thumb drive full of agency secrets and goes AWOL. This triggers the CIA into sending the sociopathic Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) on an obsessive hunt to track Sierra Six down and kill him. The result is a series of explosions and action setpieces as Gosling fights his way through a series of hired killers, aided only by fellow CIA operative Dani Miranda, played by de Armas.
Ahead of The Gray Man's theatrical release on July 15, followed by its Netflix release on July 22, many publications have been putting out early reviews of the film. While most have praise for the two leads, especially Chris Evans' turn as the uncharacteristically unhinged villain, many reviewers are split as to whether the plot and cheesy one-liners are a fun throwback to action films from the 80s, or whether they're just lazy and uninspired. While some have been positive and some negative, most reviews fall in the gray area in between. Check out selected quotes from The Gray Man reviews below:
Molly Freeman, Screen Rant
In fact, when Gosling and Evans go toe-to-toe — either with gibes or fists — they're the most exhilarating scenes in The Gray Man. The Russos knew what they were doing when they cast Evans and Gosling, and the actors deftly deliver performances that feel deliberately tongue-in-cheek rather than overly grim.
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times
The bloated, bombastic and brain-dead Netflix actioner “The Gray Man” is a depressingly formulaic waste of the talents of the Russo Brothers and the A-list cast — and a complete waste of 2 hours and 2 minutes of your time, unless you’re content to hit the “Recline” button on your theater seat, soak in the exotic locations, jam your arm into a bucket o’ popcorn and laugh at the hackneyed, cartoonishly violent and utterly ridiculous idiocy of the entire exercise.
Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
Around halfway through a sustained shootout in Prague, the sheer thundering mindlessness of the whole enterprise becomes impossible to ignore.
John Nugent, Empire
Evans, in particular, gleefully pisses on Captain America’s legacy to portray the kind of villain that even Thanos would consider a bit rude. His Lloyd is really just a weapons-grade asshole, who trades in, by his own ission, “bad ethics and zero impulse control”. He’s a ton of fun to watch.
Clarisse Loughery, Independent (UK)
We know he’s meant to be unhinged because of how often people talk about how unhinged he is. It’s sociopathy as a quirk. A costume. An over-laboured wink and nod to the audience that we’ve never seen Captain America quite like this. We have, though. Evans did the same bratty shtick to much greater effect under the acute direction of Rian Johnson in 2019’s Knives Out.
Luke Y, Thompson, AV Club
For the most part, Netflix’s The Gray Man is a damn delight. It’s a throwback to the days when studios could safely rely on throwing a couple of A-listers at an action script and some big explosions, give it a competent director, and have a hit on their hands.
David Ehrlich, Indiewire
The algorithmic results don’t reflect well on the Russo brothers’ directing chops — their monumental spandex operas seldom required and never displayed the kind of muscular imagination needed to stage Michael Bay-like fight sequences — but “The Gray Man” is even more damning for Netflix itself, particularly so far as it epitomizes the streamer’s penchant for producing mega-budget movies that feel like glorified deepfakes of classic multiplex fare.
Pete Hammond, Deadline
Right from the opening the Russos show that this is going to be a whiz-bang nonstop summer ride, an action film that wants to play with the best of them and delivers one thrilling set piece after another, hoping to set the genre on fire. It also has something thematically to say about trust and family and succeeds on all counts, not least because of a very smart script with a lot of pithy dialogue for Gosling and Evans in particular.
Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
“The Gray Man” was directed by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, though it’s such a synthetic, soulless bundle of goods that it barely feels touched by human hands. Full of smirking one-liners, blink-and-you-miss-’em international locations and acts of gratuitously unpleasant (if more implied than seen) violence, it’s basically Netflix Winding Refn; it’s globe-trotting comic nihilism for the whole streaming-loving family.
Peter Debruge, Variety
There’s nothing terribly original about the storytelling. Take a little of “Shooter,” a lot of “John Wick,” add a dash of Jason Bourne, shaken (but not stirred) into the license-to-kill formula, and you’ve got the basic idea. What makes “The Gray Man” exciting — and let’s not beat around the bush: This is the most exciting original action property Netflix has delivered since “Bright” — are the shades the ensemble bring to their characters and the little ways in which the Russos come through where those other films fell short.
As of now, the Rotten Tomatoes score for The Gray Man is far from fresh, hovering around a 49% among critics. This is still a sight better than the Russo Brothers' previous non-MCU film, the crime drama Cherry, starring Tom Holland in a markedly un-Peter Parker-like role. While the brothers have reteamed with their Winter Soldier, Infinity War, and Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for this latest project, the action film doesn't seem to be the out-of-the-ballpark success of their superhero efforts.
The Rotten Tomatoes score often splits when it comes to audience reactions versus those of critics. Since most audiences haven't yet had the chance to see the film, that could likely be the case here. Regardless of how people feel about the movie, negative, positive, or somewhere in between, the consensus seems to be that The Gray Man is not a thinking person's movie, and may be best enjoyed if viewers are willing to sit back and turn off their brains for a couple of hours.
Source: Various (see links above)
