Review: Cleveland natives Anthony and Joe Russo return with action-packed ‘The Gray Man’

Netflix essentially gave Cleveland natives Anthony and Joe Russo $200 million to play around with “The Gray Man,” an action thriller that debuted on the streamer Friday. They ensure that, if nothing else, they had fun while making it.

It’s a B-level film with an A-list cast. The movie is an orgy of car chases, shootouts, one-liners and general mayhem. The cast, which features Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Billy Bob Thornton, is here for all of it.

“The Gray Man” wallows in its obvious excesses because it doesn’t take itself remotely serious and neither does that stellar cast, which also includes Alfre Woodard and Regé-Jean Page (“Bridgerton”), which allows for almost every absurdity that unfurls on screen to possess a wink-wink-nudge-nudge kind of appeal.

‘Gray Man’ an old-school action flick

At the same time, however, “The Gray Man” plays like an old-school actioner with European sensibilities courtesy of the Russo Brothers essentially trotting across the globe, and blending it with the breakneck pace of its American action counterpart. The result: an uneven ride that the viewer can’t help but enjoy on one level while trying to sift through the confusion on another.

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Gosling stars as Six, an assassin for hire, who when we meet him is on his latest job. It doesn’t quite pan out as planned. Six is tasked with eliminating a bad guy, who is essentially a colleague. He’s a fellow agent in the super-secret program who has uncovered dirt on one of its leaders. Of course, that leader, Carmichael (Page), would do anything to ensure that incriminating information gets buried.

Six is sent to retrieve the information, but is thrown a curve when he actually learns that it can do damage to his agency. Knowing what that information is, Carmichael takes desperate measures as he hires a wash-out, sociopathic CIA operative, Lloyd Hansen (Evans) to track down the data and Six with orders to eliminate him.

It sends Hansen into all aspects of Six’s career, including to the door of his mentor (Thornton) and his niece Claire (Julia Butters), who is like a little sister to him.

No, it’s far from difficult to predict in which direction this little adventure will go. First there’s improbable, then it will turn to the impossible and by that time, audience members who’ve taken a shot on this film will be totally sucked into its mayhem and chaos as cinema aesthetic.

Anthony and Joe Russo trust actors

There’s little denying that a couple of talented actors just plying their trade and having a grand time in the process possesses a certain appeal and the Russo Brothers allow Evans and Gosling to have at it.

But in the course of that, someone such as Evans gets to flex some muscle as he steps out of the goody-two-shoes character of Steve Rogers/Captain America, the role that made his career, to just have some fun and let it fly. He gives the amoral Hansen an air of danger laced with a dark sense of humor.

Gosling has done the stoicism thing in other roles such as “The Driver.” Still, there’s more to Six than that quality as he displays a wry wit at the absurdity of the situation in which he’s involved.

Add to the mix some stellar stunt work and spectacular effects and “The Gray Man” represents a diversion, albeit one that is far from perfect.

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal. Reach him at gthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByGeorgeThomas

Details

Movie: “The Gray Man”

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Billy Bob Thornton Rege-Jean Page, Alfre Woodard

Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo

Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes

Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of strong violence, and strong language.

Grade: B-

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Review: Antony and Joe Russo team up with Netflix for latest film