STORY: In the new Netflix movie "The Gray Man," Ryan Gosling's character jokes that he goes by the name Six because 007 was taken.

The film is a big-budget, effects-filled thriller in the spirit of a James Bond adventure. Netflix and the movie's directors hope the film, which starts streaming on Friday (July 22), will launch the company's own long-running spy series.

Gosling stars as Sierra Six, a former inmate sprung from prison by the CIA in exchange for servitude in a secret program.

"I've always wanted to make an action movie," Gosling told Reuters. "Action was my first love. It made me fall in love with movies in the first place. It took a minute to get there and find the right one."

However, he was surprised by the amount of action in the movie. "By action movie standards this is very extreme because there's like 9 action set pieces whereas most action films have half of that so it was real trial by fire for me having it be my first action film. It was kind of overwhelming but in the best way."

"The Gray Man" is based on a novel by Mark Greaney and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the brothers who helmed Marvel's mega-blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame."

Chris Evans plays Gosling's nemesis, an assassin named Lloyd Hansen who was expelled from the CIA for excessive tactics. It's a far cry from his heroic Captain America.

"He's unapologetically himself," Evans said of Hansen's character. "I think most of us walk through the world measuring who we are based on who we think we're supposed to be, and Lloyd is unbound by those social norms."

"The Gray Man" is playing exclusively in cinemas this week before hitting Netflix.

The reaction from film critics has been mixed. As of Monday, "Gray Man" had a 52% positive rating among reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Audiences were more enthused, with 89% of commenters on the site giving a thumbs up.