Netflix’s most expensive movie is now streaming
The consensus that seems to have emerged on Netflix’s ultra-expensive, recently released spy thriller The gray man is that this Russo Brothers movie is one of two things, depending on whether you’re an entertainment critic or a viewer.
To many reviewers who got their first look at the streamer’s adaptation of author Mark Greaney’s debut title gray man spy novel series, the resulting 2-hour feature is an all-too-slick, slightly derivative star vehicle that the filmmakers spent too much time and money making sure it looked good. At the expense of other things, like character development and such. If critical consensus is important to you, in other words? The gray man is Bourne-lite.
The fact is, however, critical consensus doesn’t seem to matter much to many viewers. Many of them have decided that the film is an escape game that does exactly what action thrillers are supposed to do: entertain you.
The gray man | Now streaming on Netflix
Reflecting the same lopsided reaction we also saw in the wake of Amazon The list of terminalsviewers overall reacted much more favorably to The gray man. They gave it an audience score of 90% so far on Rotten Tomatoes, for example, compared to 49% from critics.
The big question is whether this translates to the breastmilk of success at Netflix. More specifically, in the time spent watching.
We’ll get our first idea of how the movie fares with viewers on Tuesday, when the streamer will release its next batch of Top 10 charts. Suffice it to say, though, that for Netflix, there’s a lot to do on the film. Netflix gave it a record budget of $200 million, for one thing, making it the most expensive original movie to debut on the streamer to date.
For now, let’s talk a bit more about this The gray man actually has in store for viewers. “The Gray Man is CIA agent Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), aka Sierra Six,” the Netflix synopsis explains. “Born from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his master, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly trained, Agency-sanctioned death dealer.
But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by ex-CIA Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), who will stop at nothing to take him down. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He will need it.
READ MORE: Netflix is making huge changes to better compete with rivals like Disney Plus
Additional Thoughts
A few more thoughts I had, in no particular order, after watching the movie (which I give a solid 8/10):
Overall, it’s a fine adaptation of Greaney’s work. I have read several of his novels in gray man series, and I plan to check out its latest – Armored, which is not part of the series — soon. The film’s action and fight scenes, meanwhile, are fast-paced and as entertaining to watch as you’d expect from the directors whose bombshell and spectacle gave us Avengers: Endgame.
As for the casting, I had never seen Ana de Armas in a role that required her to struggle so much before. Nonetheless, she’s fan-freaking-tastic as one of The Gray Man’s few allies in the secret world.
As a fan of Greaney’s novels, however, I’ve sometimes wondered if Regé-Jean Page is being slightly misinterpreted as CIA chief Denny Carmichael. From the books, I always felt like he was this bro-y, fat suit that oozed privilege and smarminness. Page is a fantastic actor and he does a great job here as always. But he plays the role in a bit firmer, buttoned-up style than I expected. This is just a personal opinion and it does not detract from the pleasure of the film.
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