There’s a cruel irony to the fact that The Gray Man, the latest of so many airport-novel thrillers to find its way to screens, initially had Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One (and Rogue Nation and Fallout) writer-director Christopher McQuarrie attached. You’ll start to get the sentiment when you watch the film’s trailer above.
Now, with Joe and Anthony Russo directing, with its trailer arriving shortly after McQuarrie’s awesome-looking Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One teaser, it’s a bit of an embarrassment—all the same big action set-piece vibes, just not as cool.
Having Ryan Gosling (the titular Gray Man) and Chris Evans as rival agents—the latter weirdly styled in Pornstache cosplay from Orange Is the New Black—should be an easy charmer. But, compared to the slick production of the last few Missions Impossible, it’s a bit…
It’s not great, right?
Like the Russos’ Captain America: Winter Soldier, it’s probably a fine enough little loosely-political thriller, but this is not going to be a Face/Off situation. And it should be a Face/Off situation. We should be loving seeing two of our best Decreasingly-Blonde Handsomes facing off—Captain America and a literal Ken doll butting too-perfect heads to be named the too-dated all-American ideal.
But it’s just fine. That’s the problem, you Russo boys. Make this memorable. Instead, The Gray Man will just be tossed in with the other forgettable Netflix originals when it streams July 22.
