Review by Jon Donnis
Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey feels like a deliberate throwback to the kind of muscular action thrillers that used to dominate late night DVD shelves and crowded multiplexes in the early 2000s. It is stylish, loud, occasionally messy, and completely uninterested in pretending to be anything deeper than a fast moving crime thriller with attractive people pointing guns at each other across exotic locations. In truth, that works in its favour more often than not.
The setup is pure Ritchie. A covert team operating in the shadows is tasked with retrieving a stolen billion dollar fortune from a dangerous despot, only for the mission to spiral into double crosses, hidden agendas and escalating violence. The plot itself is not especially original, but the film survives on energy, chemistry and confidence. Ritchie knows exactly the sort of film he is making here and rarely wastes time pretending otherwise.
Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal make for an entertaining duo as Sid and Bronco, two extraction specialists who spend much of the film bouncing between deadpan humour and brutal action. Cavill in particular looks completely at home in this sort of role. There is a relaxed charisma to him throughout, almost as if he has been waiting years for a film that allows him to simply be cool without drowning him in mythology or franchise baggage. Gyllenhaal meanwhile brings a slightly twitchier edge, giving Bronco enough unpredictability to stop him feeling like just another wisecracking action hero.
Still, the real standout is Eiza González as Rachel Wild. She walks away with the film whenever she appears. Smart, confident and effortlessly magnetic, she injects genuine life into scenes that might otherwise have been little more than exposition dumps and gunfire. There is an old fashioned movie star quality to her performance here that lifts the entire production. Ritchie clearly knows it too, because the film increasingly bends around her presence as it goes on.
For the first hour, In the Grey feels almost too relaxed with itself. There is plenty of style, plenty of witty dialogue and enough swagger to keep things watchable, but the pacing occasionally drifts. It is not until the final half hour that the film properly explodes into life. Once the rescue mission kicks into gear, the film becomes exactly what audiences probably hoped for walking in. The gunfights are chaotic and aggressive, the betrayals come quickly, and Ritchie finally leans fully into the mix of comedy and violence that made his earlier crime films so entertaining.
The humour is another strong point. The dialogue is filled with sharp little exchanges and sarcastic throwaway lines that stop the film becoming overly self serious. Even during the heavier action scenes there is always a sense that the characters are enjoying themselves, which becomes infectious after a while.
That said, the film is undeniably rough around the edges. The continuity can be distractingly jagged at times, with scenes feeling cut down or rearranged in ways that are difficult to ignore. Certain character motivations suddenly change without much explanation, while some plot threads appear and disappear so quickly that they barely register. It strongly suggests the film underwent substantial editing to squeeze itself into the roughly 90 minute runtime. Another twenty minutes might actually have helped smooth everything out.
There are also moments where the action becomes slightly difficult to follow. Ritchie’s fast editing style works brilliantly when the rhythm clicks, but occasionally scenes move so quickly that geography and logic start to blur together. Thankfully, the film never becomes boring. Even at its most chaotic, it keeps charging forward with enough momentum to carry the audience through the confusion.
In the Grey is not trying to reinvent the action thriller. It is a straightforward Guy Ritchie film filled with criminals, mercenaries, betrayals, sharp suits and bullets. Sometimes that is enough. In an era where so many blockbusters feel overstuffed with self importance and endless franchise setup, there is something refreshing about a film that simply wants to entertain for ninety minutes.
It may be slightly by the numbers, and the editing issues are impossible to ignore, but the performances, humour and final act are strong enough to make it easy to recommend to fans of old school action thrillers.
In the Grey earns a solid 8 out of 10.
Out Now - https://apple.co/4tzkMY1
