Fairly Short and Hopefully Spoiler-Free Review: The Gray Man

One-sentence review: Busy and formulaic, but reasonably fun.

TL;DR:

Lots of chases and explosions and fights.

Not even remotely suspenseful (I can think of a grand total of one, very mild, surprise near the end). The usual "extremely undercover special operator betrayed and chased" stuff.

But hey, it stars Ryan Gosling and Jessica Henwick and Billy Bob Thornton and Julia Butters and others.

And Chris Evans as a psycho with a porn 'stache.

And it's directed by the Russo brothers.

And it had a $200 million production budget to pay for lots of chases and explosions and fights and Ryan Gosling and Jessica Henwick and Billy Bob Thornton and Julia Butters and others and Chris Evans as a psycho with a porn 'stache.

As Netflix movies go, it's pretty much 6 Underground with Ryan Gosling instead of Ryan Reynolds and Chris Evans (did I mention the porn 'stache?) instead of Lior Raz. And all that goes with those casting differences (better villain, less clever/humorous/off in surprising directions writing).

I don't regret the time I spent watching it, but if I'd paid for a theater ticket* instead of a Netflix subscription, I'd probably be a little disappointed. A nice little energetic drive in the country, but no steakhouse or strip club at the turnaround point, if you take my meaning.

Anyway, if you're not a Netflix subscriber, I recommend against becoming one just to see this movie. If you are, and if you have two hours and 19 minutes to kill, and if you like the idea of lots of chases and explosions and fights and Ryan Gosling and Jessica Henwick and Billy Bob Thornton and Julia Butters and others and Chris Evans as a psycho with a porn 'stache, knock yourself out.

* Speaking of which, I finally canceled my Regal Cinemas "unlimited" membership. Unless I average two movies a month, it doesn't save me money, and I've been averaging maybe one, if that.