Ronin (1998)

Director: John Frankenheimer

Starring: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, Jonathan Pryce

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Your ally could become your enemy

Plot: A freelancing former US intelligence agent tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by both the Irish and the Russians.






My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Debatable but likely

This is my second viewing. I originally saw it in the theater and remembered it mostly for the car chase. Now that I’ve seen it again I’m not so sure I’m going to remember that much about it.

"Oooh, lookee...toys!"

It’s a good film, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I found myself ready to move onto something else. Maybe it was just the mood I was in at the time which was nothing unusual. It’s a solid film directed by a solid director and performed by solid actors from a solid script (by one of my favorites, David Mamet).

"Boromir gets his ass kicked by The Godfather"

One thing I think I will remember is the tension between De Niro (an ex-CIA guy) and Sean Bean (an ex OSS dropout). De Niro’s character is a professional and will not tolerate under any circumstance working with someone who is not (like Bean’s sorry excuse for a mercenary). His mind is on the mission and on nothing else. It’s all about the job. I really dig characters like that. They don’t fuck around. A lot of the rolls Charles Bronson played in the 70s were like that. No nonsense until the gig is over. THAT is cool. To have someone that will not bend makes the character more respectable and watchable. Oh, and before I forget, French actor Michael Lonsdale is in this and kicks all kinds of acting ass. Don’t know his name? He played the bad guy, Hugo Drax, in MOONRAKER (1979) as well as appearing in a number of high profile films like THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (1973), THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986), THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (1993) and MUNICH (2005).

It’s a good cat and mouse story with everybody’s eyes on the briefcase. Everybody wants it, and I mean EVERYBODY so there’s lots of double crosses; enough to keep scratching your head for the last hour. And, for me, it’s the last half hour that really picks up steam. While the car chase is good (much better in the theater than on my 60” TV) and I don’t think it brings anything new to the table, it is considerably better than most found in the past twenty years. As far as I know, there’s no CGI which automatically gets major points in my book. Tarantino’s car chase in DEATH PROOF (2007) is great for that reason alone.

NO SPOILERS FOR OLD MEN…YE HAVE BEEN WARNED…YARRRR…

I like surprises. I like to see innocent people die simply because you don’t see it coming and it can be a more powerful death when they don’t deserve it. We get one in RONIN. The main bad guy is sponsoring a Russian ice skater. At the end of the film someone has a sniper rifle trained on her during a public performance and has orders to kill her (and she knows nothing of her sponsor’s dealings) if they do not receive the all clear. They don’t receive the all clear and POW! There’s blood on the ice. NICE. NICE. NICE. As film goers we’re so accustomed to being saved at the last minute so when someone isn’t saved it’s a shocker. There was a collective, “AWESOME” cheered from everyone who was present with me. Nice.

END OF SPOILERS…YARRRRRR

At just over two hours it starts to overstay its welcome but it is worth a look. At the very least it’ll show you that old dogs (Frankenheimer) can still show the new ones a thing or two about film making. In an age of the rapid fire edits loaded with CGI it’s nice to see someone take their time with their craft and produce something with tension and intelligence. Say, that reminds me. I’ve been dying to CHINESE SUPER NINJA.