A sniper on a mercenary assassination team, kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Terrier's successful kill shot forces him into hiding. Returning to the Congo years later, he becomes the target of a hit squad himself. A sniper on a mercenary assassination team, working for an unknown client, kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Terrier's (Sean Penn's) successful kill shot forces him to go into hiding to protect himself and the members of the team from retribution. This includes abruptly abandoning his girlfriend who has no idea what is going on. The assassination, paid for by a foreign mining company, triggers wide spread chaos and death in an already inflamed Congo. Terrier returns to the Congo years later working for an NGO, but eventually finds himself to be the target of a paid hit squad somehow connected to the ministers assassination. This leads to immediate deaths and the endangerment of the people working around him, and forces him back into hiding. In trying to discover who has put a price on his head, he begins to reconnect to the members of his old assassination team, including his old girlfriend. Always aware there is no path to redemption for his crimes, he is also periodically incapacitated by a type of accumulated and evolving physical brain damage caused by the hard knocks of his occupation. Unexpectedly, given the time that has elapsed, his reconnection to his old assassination team exposes additional intrigues with immediate deadly consequences. All of his years spent in hiding, have merely delayed the twisted end game that now enfolds. So the movie started slow like French or European cinema building the plot up. Sometimes I wondered when it would stop building the plot and actually get to the movie. But hey, whatever. I thought it was okay, but of course movies these days and gun violence is just so boring. I'm so desensitized to the whole thing of all the 'Hollywood' guns and shoot em up films. Let me give an example, John Wick, excellent. No frills, you knew you weren't going to get disappointed a third of the way into the film. In the case of The Gunman, I thought I knew what to expect so was disappointed that in shoot out scenes with Sean Penn, as "The Gunman", why was he ALWAYS missing his shots? As in scenes where he's supposed to be shooting people. Seriously, I was so rolling my eyes that I swear his shooting was worse than a bat. See bats can be blind that is my point. Especially for this plot. His hand to hand combat and use of knives, way better. I think I was expecting The Gunman to actually make a few kill shots, silly me to expect that. So maybe it could have been called, Hand to Hand Combat or I Can Wield a Knife. Something that matched more appropriately to what actually happens in the film. <br/><br/>Oh Sean, Sean. Kudos to the great body, the work out he must of done to get in shape was amazing. But the plot was weak. I think he would be a great action hero with a conscience next time if the plot actually reflected the title.<br/><br/>Then the character played by Javier Bardem. What's up with this guy? First of all, see any of his movies lately from the past five years and ALL his acting is the same, and just plain melodramatic. I used to really like him, but his characters don't seem to have any depth. I am going so far to question, does he just take the movie script just for the paycheck? Let's put that thought on pause.<br/><br/>Jasmine Trinca, was actually good. The French missionary caught in a love triangle. No one can do that like the French. So kudos to her, well played. Her range of emotions and just sexiness had appeal.<br/><br/>I have NO idea why Idris Elba's character didn't make the edit, on the cutting room floor that is. He shows up on a park bench for Interpol and was disappointing kind of British ranting along like they yelled action and he just, well whatever he did there on that bench. Then goes off screen. I could not get the plot, what was the point of him to then show back up later to do whatever dumb Interpol Agent rant again. I guess his bad British accent was real, he is really British. IMDb is right 98% of the time with it's ratings but this is one of the few times they were wrong. "The Gunman", although generic, is a tight film that was well put together with the right amount of action, drama, and thrill. Sean Penn gave a wonderful performance in this film as did Javier Bardem and even though Idris Elba's part in this film was very small he too gave an excellent performance. "The Gunman" is about a mercenary assassin sniper who is forced into hiding after a successful kill then realizes that he's the one being hunted. Some might say this film is a Sean Penn's "Taken" but the way this film is played out, to me it's not a Sean Penn's version of "Taken". It's just a good film that has an identity of it's own. It's not the best action / drama film out there but it is enjoyable. Ripe, borderline hammy turns from Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone, Idris Elba and Mark Rylance add some spice.
Westhare replied
295 weeks ago