End of July Movie Reviews (Operation Mincemeat, Downton Abbey: A New Era, The Gray Man)
After a promising start to the month movie-wise (see my prior July review!), I finished off the month with the new Downton Abbey movie and a pair of Netflix films, one of which I definitely did not enjoy…
Operation Mincemeat (2021)
Netflix, 128 minutes
Operation Mincemeat is a really, really bad title for a movie that’s actually pretty decent. I understand that they decided to go with a title based off of the name of the real-life British operation the film’s about, but someone definitely needed to stop them. They could have simply called the movie The Deception and even that would’ve been better; I know that’d be a pretty vague title, but at least it’s better than Operation Mincemeat.
Anyways, this is a spy/wartime/drama-type film based on a true story that’s probably not as exciting as most moviegoers would hope. There are moments in the film where viewers might think, “Oh, that’s interesting,” but that’s more the vibe the film is going for—it’s not at all thrilling or fast-paced. That’s not to say Operation Mincemeat is super boring... it’s just a little boring.
The performances here, mainly from leads Colin Firth and Tom from HBO’s Succession (real name Matthew Macfadyen), are solid, and this is still a well-made and quality film on the whole. Overall, Operation Mincemeat would be an enjoyable watch for WWII history buffs, and it is streaming now on Netflix, but unless you’re a big fan of this type of movie, I might choose something else.
Grade: 6/10
Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)
Focus Features, 125 minutes
If you were a big fan of the Downton Abbey TV show, which ran for six seasons from 2010-2015, I have good news for you. Because, while Downton Abbey: A New Era actually doesn’t bring all that much “new” to the formula of what made an episode of Downton Abbey work, it is a perfectly enjoyable sequel to the series and an improvement off of 2019’s first Downton Abbey film.
This film finds our memorable cast of upstairs and downstairs characters wrapped up in two different storylines, one centering around the filming of a movie at Downton (how meta!), and the second focusing on the mystery surrounding a villa in the South of France that the Dowager Countess has surprisingly inherited. Both storylines are equally enjoyable, and I think fans of the series won’t be disappointed by this effort from series creator/writer, Julian Fellowes.
If you aren’t familiar with the Downton Abbey show, I wouldn’t recommend A New Era since there are lots of characters and it’s really meant to be enjoyed by those already familiar with the source material. I’d definitely recommend Downton Abbey the show though, and then after you’ve finished all 52 episodes, you can watch (and enjoy) this movie!
Grade: 8/10
The Gray Man (2022)
Netflix, 129 minutes
If there was a computer where you could enter in the most cliché elements of a spy thriller and it would pop out a movie, there’s a chance you’d be left with something like The Gray Man, the most soulless, boring, and unoriginal action film I’ve seen in recent memory. The acting, writing, directing, and even special effects and fight scenes are all subpar in this slog of an action thriller. This is a film so aggressive in its mediocrity, and so uninspired in both script and direction, that it took me three viewings to finally get through.
The Gray Man was directed by the Russo Brothers, who worked together on four Marvel films, most notably the final two Avengers movies. They should go back to making super hero movies, because compared to The Gray Man, Avengers: Endgame is Casablanca, The Godfather, and The Shawshank Redemption all rolled into one.
Imagine if you took all of the movies with John Wick, Jason Bourne, and James Bond, removed any bit of charm or creativity, and took away enough violence to secure a PG-13 rating—that movie you’ve just imagined is probably better than The Gray Man.
I don’t mind a mindless action thriller if it’s at least got some good fight/chase scenes and is a bit of fun. The Gray Man is not that—it is a $200 million dollar mess. There are some quality actors in this film, but you wouldn’t know that by watching this movie since the is dialogue awful and its delivery is equally bland.
The fact that The Gray Man has a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is either troubling for the state of the world or proof that movie studios can pay to have their audience scores artificially inflated. This isn’t even a movie that falls into the so-bad-it’s-good camp, it is simply a bad movie. I almost feel personally offended that a movie so cliché, that’s such a bad rip-off of other films, could get made for so much money and still be so not entertaining. Needless to say, I do not recommend The Gray Man.
Grade: 2/10