In the Grey - A Fun and Enjoyable Ride Guy Ritchie's Style

I knew this film was about to be released this week since the biggest cinema chain in Indonesia now always shows the schedule up to one or even two months ahead. At first I was a bit doubtful cause I never heard of the movie. But once I saw the lead stars and director, I thought I should give it a try. Yesterday my wife and I got the chance to see it in the theater very near to our home. Without further ado, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Manny Salazar (Carlos Bardem - Escobar: Paradise Lost, The Chosen One TV series etc) had been borrowing large amount of money from a Financial Institution but failed to return the loan. Bobby Sheen (Rosamund Pike - Now You See Me, Now You Don't, The Wheel of Time TV series etc) who worked at the Bank was assigned to recover the debt from Salazar and ultimately agreed to the proposal from Lawyer Rachel Wild (Eiza González - Godzilla Vs Kong, 3 Body Problems TV series etc) for arranging the recovery despite her huge success fee.

Rachel had a team of specialists led by Sid (Henry Cavill - Mission: Impossible - Fall Out Argylle etc) and Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal - Ambulance, Presumed Innocent TV series etc) who she had been using for such assignment. They devised an elaborate plan to make sure Salazar's business was disrupted while Rachel herself fought in court against Manny's trusted lawyer, Horowitz (Fisher Stevens - Short Circuit, The Blacklist TV series etc). However, Salazar reside in an island protected by group of security led by Axel (Kristofer Hivju - Red One, Game of Thrones TV series etc) and they were not afraid to do anything dangerous to save their interest.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As I mentioned above, I was interested in seeing this movie due to its lead stars and director. Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal are two big names in Hollywood and experienced in being main man in plenty of action films. So it would not be shocking if I wanted to see them together. Meanwhile the director was Guy Ritchie who was well known for directing many stylish action movies such as The Gentlemen, Sherlock Holmes just to name a few. Although his recent works like Fountain of Youth, Operation Furtune: Ruse de Guerre and several others were not too well received or gotten mixed reviews, I still like his style in general so I would not want to miss his movie if I could.

This film started of with some brief scenes showing what to expect but the first half was pretty fun to see Sid and Bronco doing what they could to disturb Salazar's business and their preparation for what to expect from him. There were not a lot of action during this half except for the brief but well executed action scene in the restaurant. The best part though was the finale which was nostop action till almost the end that got my wife and me truly excited. It was really entertaining and pretty intense watching the action. Although I got to admit that there was little emotion during one of the supposedly emotional scene. Nevertheless it was not too important for us as we were more into the action anyway. 

Aside from the names above, there were some support cast including Emmet J. Scanlan (How to Get to Heaven from Belfast TV series etc), Kojo Attah (Murder at the Embassy etc) and Jason Wong (The 355, Alex Rider TV series etc) as Sid & Bronco's team members Dunne, Baker and Gucci respectively. Although it was pretty obvious that the movie relied heavily on the names of Cavill and Gyllenhaal plus González who have frequently collaborated with Guy Ritchie. Btw, Ritchie was also writer of this movie which I admired due to his creativity to think of such story even if it might not be his best work. Critics were again mixed in their opinion of this movie while I am not too sure yet of audience reception as it was just released in the US yesterday. Btw, the movie was supposed to have its wide release in January last year but since its post-production process was not completed, it was delayed for quite some time.

Overall this was an entertaining movie for me and my wife with the fun part of ruining the villain's business during the first half and an explosive nonstop action in the final part. And with good sound effects supported by great sound system made the action felt greater. The ending was quite satisfying too, even if at the end there was nothing truly extraordinary. But at least we enjoyed the roughly 1.5 hour we spent watching this movie. There was no mid or post end credit scene here which was understandable considering it was pretty conclusive and I guess Ritchie did not have any plan to make this a new movie franchise. So if you are a fan of Guy Ritchie's films, I think you would still have a decent fun time seeing this movie. But if you expect his best work or a lot more actions, then you might not be able to enjoy this. The choice is yours.

End of Brief Story Line