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It seems to me that someone here was very keen to get Ana de Armas in another role similar to the one she played in No Time To Die.

There are two problems in respect of this; the first is that the writing around her super spy character in this film is nowhere near as witty and sophisticated as it was in the 2020/2021 Bond movie, and the second is that the makers of The Gray Man got their first.

To be fair, No Time To Die had not come out by the time they were casting The Gray Man so that was very fortuitous timing for the makers of that film and bad luck for these guys, who now have two better movies they are being held up against. The one person in the loop on all of these simultaneous productions was de Armas of course and she is clearly having a great time. Any of the flaws in this movie are not on her; she is uber cool and kick ass in all of them and despite the easy comparisons actually plays each of the three women very differently. She has clocked up an Oscar nom since No Time To Die and The Gray Man of course and while this film is not calling on her full skill as an actor, she continues to show an impressive versatility in all of her roles.

Two of her other roles have also been alongside her co-star in this film Chris Evans, which was presumably another bit of repeat casting the team behind this film were keen about. Sadly though, they don’t have great chemistry here. The two of them were set against one another in Knives Out and yes, The Gray Man again, they did that first as well, and they actually have a bit of an antagonist energy here too. Evans is playing against type though, mostly. He is supposed to be the dorky everyman but he does slip into the occasional Captain America move when he gets caught up in de Armas’ latest mission.

None of this would matter if the script and the story had been better though. It is great to see the woman as the competent secret agent and the guy as the inexperienced one along for the ride; the film has plenty of The Ripley Factor, but that’s not as innovative as it would have been thirty years ago. (Ana de Armas is also only really objectified at the end when she turns up in what I swear is the H&M version of that same dress from No Time To Die.) The film is all just a little obvious and unsurprising. The narrative is at about the same level as all those comedy thrillers where the plot comes second to the comedy; films like Murder Mystery, The Spy Who Dumped Me and 22 Jump Street, but here there are no real laughs to compensate. The only successful running joke is in the number of cameos, which does bring some treats, but like everything else it isn’t quite as well managed as it should be. They really should have thrown the biggest surprise appearance in during a post credits scene – that would have put some the icing on the cake. (In fact I’m surprised there is no gag reel included because it is that kind of film.)

Ghosted is okay but I’d expected so much more. Not only from de Armas and Evans but also from director Dexter Fletcher, who have us Eddie the Eagle and Rocketman, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who were behind Zombieland and Deadpool. In the end this is not great work from any of them and the hardest working person involved remains the casting director.