The pharaonic budget is seen in each scene… but it does not guarantee the overall quality of this film with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans.
His name is Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) and languishes in a prison. He gets out of it by Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), a CIA agent, who offers him day parole in exchange for assassination. Court thus transforms into Sierra Six. Quickly, he becomes the agency’s most efficient killer…until the day he refuses to execute a target who reveals to him that his bosses are really not recommendable people.
Overnight, Six becomes a danger to the CIA and therefore must be removed. The man in charge of the operation? Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans who sports a Freddie Mercury mustache here), a particularly dangerous killer, psychopath to boot. Of course, Hansen chases Six around the world in an orgy of fights, chases, explosions, and other wide-ranging effects.
The US$200 million production budget can be seen in everything. The sets – from the French castle to the Asian skyscrapers –, the stunts, the cars, etc. On the technical side, the Russo brothers make an immoderate but very judicious use of drones, which gives rise to certain 360-degree shots and impressive tracking shots.
So much for the flowers. And the jar? The pot is everything else … starting with the scenario so tenuous that one wonders why 129 minutes were necessary. Then, The Gray Man has an unmistakable air of deja-vu. Finally, the whole feature film looks like a video game… but without the controller which allows, at least, some investment in the action. Because by stunning the public, the Russo brothers make it passive and quickly create a certain weariness.
By wanting too much to justify the budget, the filmmakers forget the essential: too much is like not enough.
Rating: 3 out of 5
