Starring: Sean Penn, Ray Winstone and Javier Bardem
Directed by: Pierre Morel
Rated: R
Running time: 1 hour 55 mins
Open Road
Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Last week we had another Liam Neeson “bad ass” film, a series that started with “Taken.” This week we get Sean Penn in the new film by “Taken’s” director. Does Sean have a future in action films? I’ll tell you later.
Meet Jim Terrier (Penn). It’s 2006 and he’s working for a mining company in the Congo. He spends his time off with his girlfriend, Annie (Jasmine Trinca) and best buddy Felix (Bardem). When the country’s new Minister of Mining begins to enforce the law, Jim’s company asks Jim to do what he does best. One well-placed rifle shot later, Jim is in the wind, leaving his friends, and the life he knew, behind.
Heavy on the gunfire and light on believability, “The Gunman” is a nice looking (lots of exotic locales) yet unsatisfying film barely kept afloat by its star. Penn, with two Oscars on his mantle, is well above the material here and manages to not be pulled down into the mess that encompasses his co-stars. Bardem, an Oscar-winner himself, seems to have signed on in order to get a free trip to Spain. From frame one you know Felix has eyes for Annie and that, with Jim out of the picture, they will end up with each other. Trinca sleepwalks through the film as Annie, showing more skin than emotion in many scenes. As Terrier’s old buddy with all of the connections, Winstone give the film some life when on screen while Mark Rylance and Idris Elba add some Brit-level class to the production. Penn, who apparently borrowed Sylvester Stallone’s body, circa 1985, is given the chore of making Jim and his actions believable. With a mustache and soul patch that makes him look like the popular Guy Fawkes mask and an apparently unending supply of bullets, Terrier manages to escape death even while suffering from painful headaches.
Eight years pass between the time Jim leaves the Congo and he learns he’s a hunted man, yet nobody appears to have aged. Maybe all of those push-up Penn did helped him stay youthful. He should have used some of that time to read the script. Besides limitless bullets and the ability to always be the best shot in the room, Jim’s adventures put him in the midst of a bull fight, in a country that has not only outlawed bull fighting but insisted that fact be pointed out in the end credits.
As for Penn the action star? He obviously has the chops for the job. He just needs better material.