The Gunman

We've all seen many films that have an assassination plot laced with politics galore that probably span the globe as far as different locales are concerned. Anywhere from "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" to "Lincoln" to "The Day of the Jackal", Hollywood is fraught with films like these. Is it no wonder that people have become intrigued with the sniper/ assassination concept since so many have been produced, that we now have another in the offing called "The Gunman"?

In 2006, a sniper on a mercenary assassination team, working for an unknown client, kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Jim 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, Annie (Jasmine Trinca) 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. Eight years later, Terrier returns to the Congo working for an NGO, but eventually finds himself to be the target of a paid hit squad somehow connected to the minister's assassination. This leads to immediate deaths and the endangerment of the people working around him including Stanley (Ray Winstone), 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 and one Terry Cox (Mark Rylance).

Others to round out the cast are Javier Bardem as Felix, Idris Elba as Agent DuPont, Peter Franzen as Reiniger, Billy Billingham as Reed, Daniel Adegboyega as Bryson, Ade Oyefeso as Eugene and Rachel Lascar as Camille.

This was directed by Pierre Morel ("District B13" '04, "Taken" '08, "From Paris with Love" '10) plus TV, who knows a thing or two about these type of films. His resume speaks for itself, and it shows in this vehicle. He's quite adept at showing fear, worry, concern that is emitted from his actors. It was written by Don MacPherson, Pete Travis and Sean Penn based on the novel "The Prone Gunman" by Jean-Patrick Manchette. The problem here is that when different locales and time periods are being used, it is extremely easy to allow the script to become bogged down with inconsistencies and areas of confusion. Part of the problem may be that there were three writers involved here which can cause too many ideas in one screenplay. Possibly having one or maybe no more than two writers would have been more definitive in script. It starts out a bit slow to a point that I yawned a couple of times, however if you're patient, this script does pick up and becomes more compelling as the story progresses. Penn does his usual top notch performance, but this certainly looks like he practically yawned through this--not much to sink his teeth into.

This wasn't a total wash--it had some great action scenes with some amazing stunts, but, at the end of the day, this was not the original story we would hope coming from a Penn flick. Certainly, if you like assassination/espionage films, this film will rock you, but to the average film-going movie fan, it really is just another day at the office.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                    Rated: R                                    115mins.