John Patrick’s Review: The Gray Man

So, for some reason, I need to get psyched up to pull something off of a streaming service and dedicate two + hours to sitting there and watch.  Which is interesting, because I will, without hesitation, watch an episode of a streaming service series, say "The Old Man" and think nothing of watching two or three in a row.  Same time.  Feels like less of a commitment.  I didn't say it made sense.  So I was set Saturday to settle in for The Gray Man.

I say all of that to say, I was ready to dedicate the better part of a Saturday evening to what is apparently one of the "hotter" movies on NETFLIX, The Gray Man.

The movie stars, Ryan Gosling, whom I like.  Chris Evans, whom I really enjoyed as Captain America and Ana de Armas, she had a very brief but impactful role in the last James Bond movie "No Time To Die".

So, about the movie.  I learned a long time ago, that things being "good" or "bad" is very subjective.  What's "good" to me, might be "very bad" to you, and so forth.  So, these days I leave with "did I like it", did I "not like it".

The Gray Man for me, couldn't make up it's mind as to what kind of movie it wanted to be when it grew up.  It's violent, I have NO problem with that.  At times it seems very serious, and yet, at times silly.  The silly didn't seem to fit.  A friend of mine referred to it as "cartoonish".  That's fair.

Now, back to the "did I like it" or "did I not like it".  I did enjoy it, but I wish I had known what I was in for.  I was set for a thriller, eh...I don't know that it was really that.

Here's a thought I couldn't shake.  Did you see the NETFLIX offering from a few months ago, "Red Notice", with Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gil Gadot?.  The Gray Man kept reminding me of that movie.  Two male leads and a female.  It almost felt like they sat in a big room at NETFLIX and said, "ok, how can we do another movie, just like that, but different, with different actors".  That's The Gray Man.

It's a little over two hours long.