HEY BUD, LET’S PUNCH AND SHOOT
The Gunman
**1/2
Review by Paul Preston
“The Gunman” is the perfect vehicle for Sean Penn to pull a Liam Neeson and do a late-career swing into action. The 54 year-old star gets to exercise all of his muscles:
– The first being a jacked-up body ready for intense action scenes. Penn is no stranger to changing up his look for a role (look at “Carlito’s Way” or “Milk”), and he has carved himself from granite to play sniper Jim Terrier.
– Humanitarian efforts. Penn is a well-documented humanitarian, arriving on the scene of numerous danger zones like Katrina and the Haiti hurricanes and “The Gunman” deals with monetary interests endangering people trying to better the situation in The Congo. Anti-humanitarian, pro-greed capitalists are the kind of people Sean Penn should be beating up in movies and real life.
– Seriousness. “The Gunman” is from Pierre Morel, director of “Taken”, but there’s no time for fun bad guy-dispatching as Penn’s Terrier is grim, struggling with PTSD and rather humorless. If you’ve seen Penn smack a photographer or make everyone uncomfortable at The Oscars, you can buy into this.
With that, is it entertaining? When the fighting shifts into high gear, it’s on par with anything put together in today’s modern action films. Morel is a one of a group of filmmakers including Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen that actors like Neeson, Penn & Kevin Costner flock to for churning out heroics. And they deliver in that respect. Morel’s fight scenes are bludgeoning, well-choreographed and there are some thrills in the middle of “The Gunman” that some movies would long to have in their finale.
In the middle of it, Penn is authentic. At one point he actually yells, “Who do you work for?!!” and I think after being bottled up in something like “The Tree of Life”, he was due to unload a little Jack Bauer antics on the big screen. But did I mention humorless? Be prepared to not have as much fun as “3 Days to Kill”.
The plot of “The Gunman” swirls around a sniper involved in the high-level assassination of a mining ambassador in Congo and the fallout, which includes Terrier going into hiding and leaving behind the woman he loves. As the past comes back to haunt him (as happens in these films), he tries to put the pieces back together with his partner Felix (Javier Bardem), and his old flame and winds up in the middle of some double-crossing that finds INTERPOL getting involved in the uncovering of corporate corruption. Not exactly “True Lies”.
As if the gravitas weren’t thick enough, Ray Winstone shows up in the middle to recap plots and offer stern warnings with his deep, gravelly voice. He and Penn share scenes so hushed and sober, there’s no way they could’ve heard each other across the table.
By the end, a news reporter recaps the seriousness of Africa’s situation by looking directly into the camera with that “It’s up to you” look Costner gets at the end of “JFK”. But there is something noble about Penn taking this on as opposed to giving up and just being in an “Expendables” movie. Again, this is the kind of action movie Sean Penn should be in, so you kind of know what you’re in for. He won’t be popping up in “Rush Hour 4” any time soon.
Directed by: Pierre Morel
Release Date: March 20, 2015
Run Time: 115 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: R
Distributor: Open Road Films
