Film review: The Gray Man works as a high-intensity thriller, but he's no Bond

Ryan Gosling stars as Six. Picture: Paul Abell/Netflix

★★★★☆

Sprung from prison to be trained as a CIA hitman, Ryan Gosling is Six, aka The Gray Man (15A). Lethal, charming and handsome, he’s an American James Bond.

He’s called Six, he says, because Seven was already taken — but things start to go wrong when Six assassinates his latest target only to realise that he’s just killed a fellow CIA operative. 

Why would CIA chief Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page) order a hit on one of his own men? And why has Carmichael engaged the services of ‘independent contractor’ Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to hunt down Six and take him out? 

Adapted from Mark Greaney’s novel and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, The Gray Man is a blend of Bond and Bourne that isn’t quite as slick as the former or as kinetically charged as the latter, but still works as a high-intensity thriller.

Regé-Jean Page as Carmichael

There are plenty of spectacular action sequences — indeed, there are times when it feels like the entire two-hour run-time is one long, relentless shoot-out — but Gosling is a very likeable presence in the lead role, and especially when drawling his disarmingly laconic one-liners. He gets good support from Billy Bob Thornton as his former handler Fitzroy and also from young Julia Butters, playing Fitzroy’s imperilled niece Claire, with Chris Evans — obviously relishing the chance to play a bad guy — chewing up the scenery as the psychopathic killer Hansen

(Netflix)