The Gunman (2015)

Simply A Masterpiece

Fantastic!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's 2006. The Democratic Republic of Congo is on the verge as factions fight over mineral rights. Jim Terrier (Sean Penn) is having a fling with NGO doctor Annie and is part of a private security team. Government Minister cancels mining contracts and they are hired to assassinate the Minister. Felix (Javier Bardem) is their murky boss. Jim fires the kill shot and flees the Congo leaving Annie behind. Eight years later, Jim is back in the Congo doing humanitarian work. Gunmen attack his work site.I don't understand why he would go back to the Congo. It's a simple thing for him to do humanitarian work somewhere else and be attacked. There's no skin off the script. There is a social justice aspect to this action thriller but it mostly leans towards action thriller. It makes it less authentic and Penn is no action hero. It simply doesn't work being caught between the fun action genre and the serious message thriller genre. It still could have worked if he stayed in the Congo trying to protect his humanitarian work from various gunmen. Instead, he's globetrotting and this turns into a romantic melodrama. The middle falls into a slow muddle. I don't know what this is trying to be but it doesn't work.

Always endangered to break under its over-complicated story-line, progressing from scene to scene without forgetting to grip on twisted suspense, "The Gunman" (2015) directed by "96 hours" (2008) director Pierre Morel surprisingly holds up under pressure with leading actor Sean Penn, carrying a heavy load in shape of a backpack from Central Africa to several locations in Europe in order to encounter one by one the demons of his past and eliminating any hostiles under hammering sound design and well-staffed properties of action combined with believable close to humanized relationships with supporting parts stretching from Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance as corrupted nemesis in a globalized world business of natural resources and actress Jasmine Trinca as the protagonist's love interest, who got the chemistry balanced enough to elevate this action thriller over the usual lone wolf clear-my-name revenge story.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

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. The Gunman is without one of the most boring action movies of all time and although it does have some good action sequences and the acting isn't that bad it's still a huge mess of a film with a lot of talking and maybe a 20 to 25 minutes of action, suspense and shooting it's not as bad as maybe some people made it out to be but it's still a pretty dumb action movie that offers nothing new to the viewer except getting bored to death and that's why i'll give the film a much better title such as "The Gunman: Boredom" much better now.

I really expected much, at least an 8 out of these 2 amazing actors, Sean and Javier Bardem. I did not expect such a disappointing, boring, stupidly written "thriller" I rented the movie and felt sorry for every cent i paid, is Penn turning into Cage? What happens to these actors as they get older? and Javier? this actor played so bad, if there was an Oscar for bad acting he would get it. The holes in the plot are huge, the acting terrible, the story idiotic and boring, the directing slow and tiring. Don't watch it. i gave it a 3 because of my good manners, it should get a 1. If there is a movie that should have not been made, it is this one (and some of nick's, and Vin......)