“The Gray Man” movie review: Prague is spectacular in the Netflix blockbuster | Movie Review (Jason Pirodsky)
Prague gets a lot of work in the action film The Gray Man, which was filmed in the Czech capital last summer and debuts on Netflix today. The Czech police are mowed down by bullets, flying cobblestones, and the poor man is not. 11 is blown up and derailed during one of the best action sequences you’ll see this year.
The Gray Man features Ryan Gosling as Sierra 6 – so named because he was kidnapped as Agent 007, he jokes – a convict who serves two decades in prison until CIA agent Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) hires him to he came to work as the titular agent: a disposable ghost trained by the government to carry out dangerous and morally dubious missions off the grid.
Twenty years after his recruitment, Six finds himself in Bangkok and tasked by devious new CIA chief Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page) to take out a target before said target can sell valuable government data. However, when Six confronts the target (Callan Mulvey) after the shootout, it turns out to be Sierra 4…a betrayed agent with evidence of the dubious CIA on a flash drive that 6
Sensing the writing on the wall, Six refuses to meet with Carmichael and with the help of Ftizroy, now a retired agent, gets out of Bangkok. Meanwhile, Carmichael hires ruthless private contractor Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to chase the 6 around the world. To get to clue 6, Hansen kidnaps both Fitzroy and his young niece (Julia Butters).
And that’s basically the whole plot of The Gray Man, which is disarmingly straightforward by similar standards: 6 shows up somewhere, Hansen or his gorillas catch up with him, and after a longer action sequence, he goes to the next location.
Along the way, Gosling’s character joins forces with a CIA legal agent who senses that her superiors are up to something (played by Ana de Armas), meets a retired head of the British agency who helps him, what’s on a flash drive (Alfre Woodard ), gets tripped up by a German document forger (Wagner Moura), confronts Carmichael’s right-hand man (Jessica Henwick) and takes on a lone wolf killer (Dhanush).
There’s not much to care about about anything that happens in The Gray Man, but the brisk storytelling by directors Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame) helps distract from the simple script. Still, one might wish this real-life spy movie would take things more seriously than a comic book blockbuster; the destructive action sequences of The Gray Man seem to play out without much consequence, while its characters don’t miss a single opportunity for a light-hearted joke.
The Gray Man also helps keep the stellar cast afloat. Gosling’s effortless charisma keeps us in suspense in what could otherwise be an underwhelming role, and he forms a real rat-rival relationship with Evans’ character; their climactic fight scene really pays off until suddenly it doesn’t.
Evans also shines playing against the ruthless Hansen type, even if the character comes across as too one-dimensional a psychopath: he’s too blandly evil for us to really hate. Dhanush’s skilled assassin with a moral compass is a much more interesting villain; unfortunately, he just walks out of the movie during the climax. And while Ana de Armas has much more to do here than in No Time to Die and a similar role, she leaves much less of an impression; the script seems shy of giving her any characterization at all.
But the real star is Prague. The plot of The Gray Man moves from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Baku, Vienna, Berlin and Prague, but the Czech metropolis plays in all the mentioned locations; local viewers will come into their own with establishing shots of local landmarks that claim to be from different parts of the world. By the way, kudos to the creators for those flowery Evil Dead-like opening shots shot from a drone, which capture large areas of the city and shake up the usual situations.
Climactic scenes set in a Croatian castle were filmed at Chantilly Castle outside Paris, and a brief sequence in the Turkish countryside looks as if it was filmed in California; the interiors, meanwhile, were largely filmed in a Los Angeles studio.
While the opening scene in Bangkok and the climactic action in Croatia take place in a foggy, murky night, all the action in Prague takes place under the bright summer sun. An extensive sequence set in the Czech capital includes an exploding Žižkov apartment, a gunfight outside the Rudolfinum with Gosling’s character tied to a bench, and a speeding tram chase sequence that spans several city districts and sees Prague’s No. 1. 11 riddled with bullets and even rockets. (You can find more details about the filming locations of The Gray Man in Prague in previous articles).
This slam-bang sequence, realized largely through practical effects outside of shots of Prague’s shattered architecture, is superbly choreographed and executed, and is undoubtedly the film’s biggest highlight. It’s also perhaps the best use of Prague in a Hollywood blockbuster, and instantly makes The Gray Man a classic among films shot in the Czech capital, regardless of any story flaws.
Touted as Netflix’s most expensive film to date, The Gray Man is undeniably polished and thoroughly engaging, though like most of the streaming service’s offerings it feels more like disposable entertainment than a cinematic event. disappointing are the final scenes, which set up the potential for a sequel rather than providing a decent resolution to the events of this film. With Netflix coming in earnest this year, it remains to be seen if those sequels are just getting started.