The Gunman

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The Gunman is one of those movies I wanted to like more than I did. The director of the movie is Pierre Morel, the man who directed Taken. The cast includes Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone, and Idris Elba, all of whom are actors I genuinely like. Perhaps, The Gunman’s biggest issue is that is just not interesting. Even after a half hour, I was struggling with the desire to watch the movie. The rare moments where my interest would actually be able to peak were with the few action sequences. The plot would often meander in areas that I just don’t care about. Pierre Morel is pretty good with his direction of the action sequences. For me, it’s his handling of the rest of the movie where he suffers. I can tell he’s trying his hardest to have The Gunman do for Sean Penn what Taken did for Liam Neeson. Admittedly, I do think Sean Penn gives a pretty solid performance. On the more negative side of performances, it pains me to say that I didn’t care too much for Javier Bardem in the movie. I can’t really say why, but I just didn’t like his performance in the movie all that much. The female lead Jasmine Trinca does her best, but doesn’t seem to have been given enough material for her to really inject personality into her character. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Idris Elba, who was really able to allow his natural charm and charisma to shine through and give the movie's absolute best performance. I think the most irritating thing about the movie is that, watching it, I could see the potential for a much better movie. The action sequences, Idris Elba, and Sean Penn were the things I liked most about the movie. Everything else just failed to grab me. 

4 / 10