Parents' Guide to In the Grey

This entertaining, if predictable, thriller is fun, but it lacks the originality and character depth of Ritchie's best films. The movie starts with a promising premise (who doesn't love a supervillain played by a Bardem brother?), but outside of the action-packed sequences and some amusing banter between Gyllenhaal and Cavill, In the Grey underwhelms. González does a good job with her role, but it's difficult to believe that she's a wunderkind at her job without more context than the fact that her mentor, a man 30 years older than her, died while trying to secure the billion-dollar deal. The camera loves her, but she's almost too perfectly coiffed and luminous in a movie with this many shootings; she's even dressed in shades of white for much of it and rarely looks like she's experienced any discomfort. At the very least, her narration acknowledges the obvious: People underestimate clever, beautiful women.

There's far more telling than showing in the movie's script, which provides little background on almost any of the characters, most of whom remain oddly flat despite Ritchie's proven ability to flesh out supporting players in large ensembles. But fans of heist thrillers will still get their return on investment from the shoot-'em-up, strike-'em-down, blow-things-up sequences. This is the kind of movie you watch for the stars and enjoy in the moment but probably won't revisit or quote the way audiences might hope for from Ritchie.