In the Gray movie review: Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal go wild as Guy Ritchie Fleck

If nothing else, Guy Ritchie’s latest effort proves that film can be ridiculously complex and simple-minded at the same time. It depicts the efforts of a lawyer and a team of mercenaries to extract $1 billion from a shady businessman who has defaulted on a bank loan. In grey It throws endless legal and logistical machinations into what is essentially the kind of mindless action movie featuring the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the 1980s. Thinking about it, these two were perfect casting for the central male characters Sid and Bronco, whose names likely gave this film its title.

As if aware that things are about to get confusing for the audience, writer-director Ritchie throws a lot of narration at us early on, delivered by Rachel Wilde (Eiza Gonzalez), an overly confident lawyer who clearly dresses for success. The plot begins when Rachel convinces investment banker Bobby Sheen (Rosamund Pike, leaning on her on-screen image as the ice queen) to hire her to recover money from a defaulter, Manny Salazar (Carlos Pardi), for a 10 percent recovery fee, with $10 million upfront.

Of course, it won’t be easy, because Manny does not hesitate to kill to achieve his goals. So, while Rachel deals with his lawyer (Fisher Stevens, whose sleazy persona is defined mainly by sweating and wiping his brow), she also enlists the help of former Special Forces agents Sid (Henry Cavill) and Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal), both of whom she once broke out of prison, to handle the physical aspects of the job, so to speak.

The plot involves Rachel sabotaging Manny’s real estate hotel project in Saudi Arabia and Sid conning Manny’s crooked accountant (Mohamed Al Turki) with, no kidding, a rigged backgammon game (hey, it worked for James Bond with Gin Rummy in… Goldfinger). As the difficult-to-understand plot unfolds, Ritchie tries to make it easier for us through the constant use of on-screen graphics that identify everything in sight, including the components of the Negro. When there’s an establishing shot of the Empire State Building, it helps that the place be called “New York.”

But all of this is just a pretext for a series of elaborate action scenes, with Sid and Bronco (funny to say, don’t you think?), instigated by an unknown team they’ve recruited, to fight Salazar’s forces, which appear to number in the hundreds – including his main henchman (Kristofer Hivju, game of thrones), who is so threatening that even his overgrown beard looks aggressive. Ritchie has a lot of experience directing this type of film, and the scenes show his directorial competence. They are sometimes also However, Sid, Bronco and their team execute every maneuver flawlessly, communicating the entire time via earbuds that never blink, without any of them suffering a scratch. Meanwhile, the bad guys fall like dominoes. At a certain point, it reduces the risk.

In grey – The meaning of the title is explained through narration, of course, by Rachel, who tells us that she operates in the gray area between the legal and the illegal, the moral and the immoral – it is the kind of film in which a cartoon villain is never seen without beautiful women in skimpy bikinis lounging by the pool in the background. In between mercilessly taking down bad guys, Sid and Bronco exchange the kind of deadpan banter that suggests they’ve seen a lot of similar movies and know exactly how to act.

It’s all done with ease, especially since the 98-minute film (including credits) bears no resemblance to Ritchie’s usual bloat. On the other hand, the jagged continuity and glaring plot holes suggest that it may be as short as it is only due to heavy editing.

All three directors have previously worked with Ritchie and their comfort shows on screen. Gonzalez certainly has fun in her role, while Cavill and Gyllenhaal, both apparently aware that this won’t be a high point in their films, downplay her in a relaxed, engaging way and seem to be angling for the chance to star in it. Sid and Bronco 2.