'The Gray Man' review: Very expensive parade of clichés

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Ryan Gosling stars in "The Gray Man" as a CIA operative who finds himself abandoned by the agency and targeted for a hit just like so many of his movie brethren before him. 

Chasing Gosling's Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six, aka "The Gray Man" all over Europe on behalf of the besuited Langley-based bad guy Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page, "Bridgerton") is the no-less highly trained black ops specialist Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans).

Gentry/Six/Gray Man has come into possession of a classic movie MacGuffin — a thumb drive exposing some nefarious CIA activities — and gets help from fellow agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) as he fights and innovates his way out of some hairy situations.

This action picture represents a steep gamble for Netflix — it's a $200 million big-screen movie in the classic sense that's almost exclusively being offered at home (there is a limited theatrical release).

It's directed by "Avengers: Endgame" filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo and based on the 2009 Mark Greaney novel. Other co-stars include Alfre Woodard and Billy Bob Thornton.

MY SAY "The Gray Man" stars excellent actors, features high-end stunts, quality action sequences and plenty of deft camerawork. But it also answers one of the most eternal questions in moviemaking, proving that none of those elements can overcome a mediocre screenplay.

Your stars' charisma and the exotic big-budget flair mean precious little if you don't have a story worth caring about.

You can burn all the money you want on-screen and it amounts to nothing if a team of three screenwriters — Joe Russo and fellow Marvel veterans Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely — can't bother to gin up a plot that involves anything more than a bunch of highly skilled people chasing after yet another secret device containing sensitive information. 

Throw into that the same old battle of highly trained assassins we've all seen millions of times before and at least one European city, in this case Prague, being absolutely destroyed during a big chase scene, and you're left with a very expensive parade of  clichés.

That's not to suggest sharp casting makes no difference: Gosling elevates the material with a performance that combines his trademark intensity with some of the self-deprecating wit that's started to come out in his midcareer work.

Evans relishes the chance to work with his "Captain America" series directors on a part that's the exact opposite of everything his Steve Rogers represented. He devours the scenery and has one of the funniest moments in the movie, when he confidently proclaims that "what I do, can't be taught," after his men have annihilated Prague and failed to capture their target.

The Russos know their way around an action scene, and they come up with several highlights, most notably an escape from a deep well that would be right at home in "The Silence of the Lambs."

But this is still a run-of-the-mill genre picture at heart.

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