Killer hit for Six
15 ★★★★
In cinemas now, on Netflix from Friday
This action-packed spy thriller is the most expensive film ever made for Netflix. And it looks it, too. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame) have crafted a string of dazzling action scenes which include a spectacular scrap on an exploding plane and a shootout on a tram speeding through Prague.
It’s well worth taking advantage of its brief run in the cinemas.
In what is conceived as the first film in a new spy franchise, Ryan Gosling breaks a four-year hiatus to play lonely secret agent Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six (or Six to his very few friends), an off-thebooks assassin for his CIA handler Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) with an “indefinite” licence to kill. But, when Fitzroy is ousted by ambitious new CIA boss Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), Six begins to suspect a conspiracy.
And, when he comes into possession of an encrypted USB drive containing evidence of Carmichael’s wrongdoings, he goes on the run. The furious Carmichael turns to his old Harvard buddy and the film’s most entertaining character. Captain
America star Chris Evans plays Lloyd Hansen, a moustachioed sociopath who was kicked out of the CIA for a lack of “impulse control”.
“If you want to make an omelette, you’ve got to kill some people,” Hansen explains as he leads a global manhunt for Six.
While the plot is largely predictable, Gosling is achingly cool as the deadpan spy, even when one sticky situation requires him to escape in a shell suit. He doesn’t say much but gets some witty and very pithy lines. When asked to explain his CIA code name, he quips, ”007 was taken”. The Bond baiting continues when Six teams up with CIA agent Dani Miranda, played acrobatically by Ana de Armas who has far more to do here than she ever did in No Time To Die.
This rogue agent could run and run.
The plot is predictable but Gosling is achingly cool as the lonely CIA assassin