Gosling plays Sierra Six, a CIA operative and part of an elite unit of highly skilled assassins. He becomes involved in an operation that goes awry and ends up having to run from the very people he works for. The plot is reminiscent of spy thrillers such as those from the Bourne series or James Bond, and like those other franchises, this film features an outstanding cast. Evans is the main antagonist, Lloyd Hansen, a ruthless killer for hire who plays his character menacingly enough but with just the right amount of douchiness and along with de Armas as a highly skilled CIA operative, Dani Miranda, these three are constantly at the center of the plentiful action. The set pieces are impressive with many memorable action sequences including an incredibly complex fight and chase onboard a tram-train that provides pulse-pounding excitement.

While there is plenty of great action, the character development can be a bit uneven. There is some good chemistry between the leads but, at times, their dialogue and interactions seem stilted. At other times, it is snappy and organic, moving the story along smoothly. It’s not the fault of the actors as they do their best with the material they’re provided. De Armas and Gosling are especially convincing as reluctant heroes, when given the opportunity and the means. The Gray Man may suffer in comparison to some of the accomplished spy thrillers that have come before it but taken on its own terms, is an entertaining and fast-paced actioner.

Although the film may be called The Gray Man, the visuals are anything but gray or drab. Establishing shots of a fireworks display are obviously CGI and stylized to look a bit like a graphic novel, but the Dolby Vision grade provides impressively rich, bright colors and deep, dark blacks. As the scene shifts to the celebration indoors, the constantly changing lighting from the fireworks and spotlights on the dance floor looked fantastic on my OLED display. The composition of shots with infinite blacks in the deepest of shadows contrasted by brilliantly illuminated objects such as colorfully backlit keyboards and LCD displays in an internet gaming café didn’t look particularly natural, but the atmospheric lighting and sharply defined images were certainly impressive. In a particularly challenging scene where smoke from an explosion fills the inside of an apartment building, the clouds of smoke appear with such fine detail that there’s a sense of depth and dimensionality as Six fights a team of Lloyd’s henchmen and the smoke swirls and moves around them in perfect unison. 

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is excellent, as should be expected from a big-budget action picture. During the tram-train fight sequence, the sounds of small-arms fire, explosions, speeding cars, and hand-to-hand combat mixed with the suspenseful music is dizzying in its clarity and ability to create a holographic aural effect. In addition to the aggressive, directional effects during action scenes, the object-based surround mix is used to effectively place eerily echoing voices and atmospheric music in the surround and height channels and move them smoothly around the room during a flashback scene. There is also some great use of popular music as introduced by characters playing records, such as Mark Lindsay’s “Silver Bird” on 45, which is played a couple of times in the film.

If you’re looking for something light and breezy to pass some time and give your home theater a real workout this summer, give The Gray Man a shot.