Pop Culture Happy Hour: "The Gray Man"

Ryan Gosling did a lot of hahaha training for the not-so-colorful thrillerThe Gray Man. (Paul Abell/Netflix)

Look, I cohost a podcast about The Prisoner. When a new international espionage-themed thriller appears with a lead character named Six, I have to pay attention. The Netflick The Gray Man is one of two new releases this month containing what I believe to be a deliberate Prisoner reference. The other one is Marcel, the Shell with Shoes On.

I loved Captain America: Civil War and The Nice Guys and Blade Runner 2049 and Knives Out. I appreciated No Time to Die. I wanted to love, or at least appreciate, The Gray Man. I tried to.

Bucky (and Everybody) with the Good Hair: Captain America: Civil War, reviewed.

Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans try to talk it out. (Marvel)

For NPR: The 13th Marvel movie/third Captain America movie/third Avengers movie/fourth Iron Man movie/exciting Spider-Man & Black Panther teaser trailer is as good as you've heard. The first notices went up after this screened a month ago (not in DC), so all I could do was try to write the Blade II of Marvel movie reviews.

The lack of memorable music in these films is a stubborn and inexplicable problem, though. Yo, Kevin Feige: Hire Michael Giacchino or somebody. You can afford him. 

Captain America: The First Avenger, set during World War II, had a stirring theme. I suspect Feige or someone deemed it too old-fashioned to be retained for Cap's present-day adventures. Too bad.