Jim Terrier (Sean Penn) finds his past catching
up to
relating to the assassination of the Minister of Mining in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo years ago. He also has to deal with Post Traumatic
Concussion Syndrome which is causing him headaches and to black out. Someone
is out to kill him and other people
involved with the operation known as Cavalier.
He races against time to find the truth which takes him to Spain
as killers close in on him.
THE GUNMAN is a well directed and shot
movie, but the script
is very thin. It is based on the novel
The Prone Gunman, but I wonder if something got lost in translation or ended up
on the cutting room floor as all you know is someone is trying to kill Terrier
for some reason and the reasons aren’t revealed until the third act. THE
GUNMAN sounds like Sean Penn trying to
get into the Liam Nesson action game or it could be an excuse to make a movie
so the actors could visit Spain
and Africa.
Idris Elba is an Interpol agent who doesn’t have much to do in this
movie other than come in for a few scenes like talking thick metaphors of
building tree houses together.
THE GUNMAN tries to be a smarted thriller than
it is, but I
think it would have been a smarted movie if they took the time to connect the
dots more and flesh out the plot more.
Instead, you have a movie entertaining enough for one viewing and likely
to be forgotten soon afterwards. You
may want to wait for rental unless you’re a big fan of the actors involved.
This review is ©3-22-2014
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
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