Colorless, by Bob Connally
26 Jul
I’ve long held to the belief that “a good movie is a good movie.” In other words, genre and target audience don’t limit me. If you tell a good story well, I’m going to recognize it and appreciate it. Sure, maybe Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is theoretically more directly aimed at women above the age of 50 than guys like me but it’s a delightful film that I thoroughly enjoyed. But when it comes to “guys like me” (“Guys like me?! I’m a guy like me!”), my heart belongs to well executed action films. The visceral thrills of movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Top Gun: Maverick keep me coming back to them and bring me a special kind of joy. When filmmakers and dedicated stunt people create a realistic action sequence, the audience can sense that commitment to doing something difficult and sometimes dangerous for something as simple as our entertainment. We owe these people our gratitude. But like anything else, there are examples of when it doesn’t work. Unfortunately, as an action film, The Gray Man falls into that category.
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