The Gray Man

It's like somebody rabbit-punching your brain for the best part of two hours, and there's a certain enjoyability in that.

Throw the Bourne, Bond, Mission: Impossible and Fast and Furious franchises into a blender... and — voilà — you might end up with a film like The Gray Man; you’ll forget it the moment you stop watching it.

The most glam dad-enjoys-while-folding-laundry movie ever.

A $200,000,000 snooze fest.

All that effort and all that money should have paid for a better screenplay.

Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling and Dhanush fight for your attention. The plot is clichéd, but the Russo brothers deliver a film packed with action, charismatic actors and beautiful locations.

Nonetheless, in its own fast and furious way, the film is cleverly constructed – a modern-day equivalent to one of those old matinee adventures in which Douglas Fairbanks would play swashbuckling pirates taking on the world.

The Gray Man may feel 15 minutes too long, but there is still much to enjoy. Chris Evans is having a ball, Ryan Gosling cements his reputation as an action star in waiting, while Ana de Armas matches her co-stars in the arse kicking stakes.

While the adrenaline-filled film boasts an all-star cast, top-notch camera-work and impressive stunt work, it lacks in character development and story giving us concepts we’ve seen over and over.

For myself, star performances and expensive grand sets are two non-negotiable ingredients of a blockbuster. The Russo brothers’ newest film has both. (And maybe it’s just a two-ingredient genre film, but that’s perfectly fine with me).