I wouldn't normally pair reviews for a feature film and an ongoing series together, but with these titles, I couldn't resist. "The Old Man" is an FX spy show starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow, who haven't been in anything together before, and get to play off each other as old friends and old spies in some satisfying ways. Bridges plays Dan Chase, a former CIA operative who has managed to exist off the grid for a few decades, but forces from the past return, and he goes on the run. Eventually he picks up a traveling companion, a woman named Zoe (Amy Brenneman). Chase is also being hunted by a hitman named Julian Carson (Gbenga Akinnagbe), an old colleague, who is now high up in the FBI, Harold Harper (Lithgow), and Harper's protege Angela Adams (Alia Shawkat).
"The Old Man" is an unusual series in that it really pushes the characters and their relationships to the forefront, and derives most of the story's twists and turns from those relationships, rather than the usual intrigues of spycraft. In that sense it feels rather old fashioned, with many of the key scenes coming down to fiery confrontations and heated conversations. There's still plenty of action in the show, and it's beautifully staged - helping us all pretend that the aging Jeff Bridges is capable of being a world class badass. However, what it's especially good at is upending the status quo from episode to episode, and constantly making the viewer question their own assumptions about who these characters are. Zoe, for instance, starts out as something of an unfortunate bystander, and a few episodes later her relationship to Chase has changed completely, and she's revealed herself to be capable of taking control of the situation in a way that's surprising and refreshing.
At the same time, the many shocking revelations and paradigm shifts don't all work, and I expect that those looking for a more traditional kind of spy story might become frustrated by the amount of melodrama. "The Old Man" wouldn't be as enjoyable if it weren't for the stellar cast helping to smooth over some of the more ridiculous dialogue. Alia Shawkat feigning indignation during a particularly wild conversation between Adams and Harper struck me as a bridge too far, and it wasn't the last time that happened. The weakest segments of the show involve flashbacks to a younger Chase (Kenneth Mitchell) during the Soviet-Afghan War, which are too many and too tedious. Still, when it's Bridges or Lithgow onscreen, it's so good to see them have the opportunity to play interesting characters. I had no trouble finishing the seven episode season, which infuriatingly ends on a big cliffhanger.
"The Gray Man," one of Netflix's more pricey action spectacles, is much slicker, more disposable entertainment. The Russo brothers direct and Ryan Gosling stars as Sierra Six, a felon recruited to be a secret CIA assassin. He has a target put on his back when he acquires a particular asset from a fellow assassin that's full of incriminating CIA secrets. His panicking supervisors send a sadistic killjoy contractor named Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) after him, target his original recruiter Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), and even kidnap Fitzroy's young niece Claire (Julia Butters) to get him to cooperate. Six's only ally is CIA agent Dani Miranda (Ana De Armas), who had the bad luck of partnering with him on the mission where he acquired the asset, putting her in danger too. Alfre Woodard, Jessica Henwick, Rege Jean Page, Dhanoush, and Wagner Moura are also involved as various operatives and handlers.
Ryan Gosling is excellent as an action star, and the Russos essentially turn him into a world-weary Bruce Willis figure here, having him deliver wry one-liners between the action set-pieces, and progressively get more and more beat-up as the movie goes on. When he gets punched, or stabbed, or lands badly, you wince, and it happens a lot. The villain is Chris Evans in full dirtbag mode as evil psycho, Lloyd. He's fun to watch and easy to root against, but never gets to let loose as much as you can tell he wants to. "The Gray Man," in spite of the relentless amount of destruction, is a very PG-13 action film. A significant amount of time is spent trying to endear us to Claire, an annoying twelve-year-old who Six gets attached to, and ends up being the major MacGuffin in the movie, because the plot here is totally beside the point.
Compared to other Netflix action movies like "Red Notice" and "6 Underground," "The Gray Man" isn't bad at all. However, the film is so generic that it seems an awful shame to have wasted the talents of the Russos, Gosling, Evans, De Armas, and all the rest on it. The high price tag means that the action is suitably grand scale, and I'm sure plenty of viewers will have a good time with it, but I was hoping for more.
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