The Gray Man: Six One Way, Two Dozen The Other

“Send in everyone.”

“Who?”

“Evvvvveerrryyy one!”

Missed opportunity.

Netflix’s newest, and most expensive movie to date, $200+ million to be exact, stars Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana De Armas. What myself and many others would expect to get from a film like this is well crafted, well-choreographed, and well shot action. Does it deliver?

Not really, and the main culprit for why that is is whoever made the decision to cast Ryan Gosling as the character, Court Gentry, who is on screen and engaged in the vast majority of the action set pieces in this film.

Now, I’m not an expert casting director. I’m not any kind of casting director actually. But it seems to me that it would be in everyone’s best interest to cast the man who has spent the better part of a decade as one of the lead actors in the biggest action film series ever.

Why have Chris Evans sit on the sidelines while Ryan Gosling shoulders the responsibility (as well as he can) of performing stunts that would be difficult even for the most seasoned of actors. Now, Gosling is no slouch when it comes to action. In the last decade he’s run, jumped, and punched bad dudes in Blade Runner 2049, Only God Forgives, and Drive.

But, when it comes to being someone who has had action choreographing infused into his bones, Chris Evans is unmatched. Even before Captain America was on the horizon, Evans was in movies that required hand-to-hand action combat such as Push, The Loser, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. In the coming 8 years, Evans would play Captain Steve Rogers in 7 MCU films, with him at or near the center of all the action set pieces of those films.

And so, in The Grey Man the scenes in which Evans is in and is the focal point of the scene the editing is much less frantic, meaning there’s less need to cover for Gosling's action shortcomings. That’s not to say the scenes in which Gosling and Evans aren’t exhilarating, they are. Those scenes are, for my money, why we’re here. To watch these two AAA list stars beat the ever-living tar out of each other.

It’s just a shame there such a noticeable gulf between the two stellar actors when it comes to their individual abilities and experience in the action genre.

3/5