Pros and Cons: The Grey Man

We recently watched the Netflix film The Grey Man and compiled a list of pros and cons. Have you seen The Grey Man yet? If not, there are spoilers below, so you’ve been warned. 

About | Released on July 22, 2022, on Netflix, the Grey Man is about the CIA’s greatest asset, who uncovers agency secrets. That triggers a global hunt by assassins set loose by his ex-colleague.  

Directors | Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Writers | Joe Russo (screenplay), Christopher Markus (screenplay), and Stephen McFeely (screenplay)

The Grey Man Key Players

Ryan Gosling as Six

Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen

Ana De Armas as Dani Miranda

Billy Bob Thornton as Fitzroy

Jessica Henwick as Suzanne Brewer

Alfre Woodard as Margaret Cahill

Regé-Jean Page as Carmichael

Dhanush as Avik San

 

Pros

• The Grey Man cast was solid, diverse, and not in a pandering way.
• Six’s dry humor sprinkling throughout the movie while interacting with the other characters is a nice balance.
• They are destroying a lot of property and blowing up things, plus a great car chase scene involving a train. We have action!
• The movie gets straight to the point. It does not take 15 minutes to let us get to know Six. Instead, it starts with the action, and you learn more about the Six as the movie progresses.
• For those looking for a nice chest piece, a shirtless Six tending to his wounds should do the trick.

Cons

• They’re introducing us to Six in prison. Fitzroy is his visitor, and he’s hiring him as an assassin. Six is asking him why and Fitzroy says something like you don’t seem to have a problem killing bad guys. Later in the movie, we learn that he only killed one person at that time, and that was his abusive father. How does that qualify him to kill as an assassin? There’s a significant difference between killing an abuser and a bunch of “bad” people. The connection between why Six became who he is was a little lazy.
• I don’t know the exact terminology, but fight scenes looked choreographed. Not sure what aided in this. Is it Ryan Gosling? Is it the editing? All of the above? It felt a little slow.
• Lloyd and that mustache! 
• They expect us to believe that Carmichael pushed out Fitzroy and Margaret. But how? It’s never explained how Carmichael gets the job. Why did Fitzroy never express concern about it? 
•  Most of the other assassins are dead, and Lloyd attempts to reach anyone who’s left. We then hear the voice of Avik San, and he says he’s tracking the target. BUT HOW?! He’s never encountered Six before. Six doesn’t have a cell phone on him. If Avik can easily track Six, it negates the whole movie when they spent a lot of time searching for Six.
• You can tell Avik’s character is having a change of heart. We have another fight scene between Avik and Dani. Avik initiates this fight, stopping it midway, before giving back the drive he stole. Why start the fight in the first place? When Dani walks into the room, Avik could’ve said the same line “Take It. These are not honorable people anymore. Take it.” Why are we wasting time with this fight scene? The need for a 2hr movie?

Major Con

• Lloyd put Six through hell, and he doesn’t even get to kill him! Suzanne, who works alongside Carmichael, kills Lloyd by shooting him in the chest! Suzanne is not innocent in any of this. Her hands are almost as dirty as Carmichael’s. Speaking of Carmichael, he doesn’t get any prison time for all the property and civilian lives he destroyed. He loses his position, and now it goes to Suzanne! What? At the end of the movie, there are no repercussions for either of them. We don’t get the satisfaction of knowing they got what they deserved. As the viewer, you’re left to feel they saved our lives only to leave us stranded. Sigh.

 

Like the name of this movie Implies a forgettable man. I wish we could forget some of this blotchy writing, but the film is entertaining despite what it looks like above. It’s action-packed, and it’s playful. So you can see some of your favorite actors doing their thing on the screen. It’s all right for an at-home Netflix movie. So I guess that’s why The Grey Man got approved for a sequel.