SummaryWhen an international team of former Cold War intelligence adversaries meet in a warehouse, their adventure of friendship, intrigue and betrayal has just begun. Like the masterless Samurai of ages past, these modern day Ronin are embarking on their final covert mission -- to recover a mysterious briefcase for an unknown employer and to s...
SummaryWhen an international team of former Cold War intelligence adversaries meet in a warehouse, their adventure of friendship, intrigue and betrayal has just begun. Like the masterless Samurai of ages past, these modern day Ronin are embarking on their final covert mission -- to recover a mysterious briefcase for an unknown employer and to s...
Finally, a movie that allowed you, if not forced you, to use your imagination. I found the plot to be compelling (who is really who and whom can you trust), De Niro is spot-on, and the car chase scenes are the best ever found in this genre of film. This is neither an action thriller nor a "shoot-em-up, chase 'em" film. It is a film that runs its own course and holds its own place. What's in the case? Who cares? It's a film that gets more appreciated the second, third and fourth time you see it.
Frankenheimer doesn't recapture the magic he once created in movies like "The Manchurian Candidate," but he does cook up an effective thriller in the "French Connection" vein.
The film does not deny its resemblance to Contact in France (1971) since it does so with a particular style, with justified dialogue and action scenes, not to mention the car chases, the kind that make the adrenaline rush in the head. Good option for an afternoon of popcorn.
Run-of-the-Mill 'Ronin'
Although laced with adrenaline and flavored with noirish seasoning, John Frankenheimer's "Ronin" is a disappointingly conventional thriller from the director of the masterful "The Manchurian Candidate" – a film whose pretensions of exoticness are ultimately thwarted by a **** mistrust of its audience's sophistication.
Taking its name from the Japanese term for wandering samurai warriors who have been disgraced by their failure to protect their masters, the film concerns a similarly rootless band of modern international soldiers of fortune who rendezvous in a dank Paris bistro at the behest of a mysterious Irish woman named Dierdre (Natascha McElhone).
Hired to retrieve by force a silver valise of undetermined contents from a shadowy coterie of unpleasant-looking men, the group includes two Americans, quizzical logistician Sam (Robert De Niro) and driver Larry (Skipp Sudduth); laconic French triggerman Vincent (Jean Reno); former KGB agent and electronics expert Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard); and jumpy British military vet Spence (Sean Bean). It is a solid cast, and the actors all acquit themselves well.
Before we are even introduced to this rogues' gallery, though, the film opens with a tacked-on title explaining the derivation of the term "ronin." It's an overly explicit addendum that is all the more perplexing since the word is again defined (with greater depth and nuance) in a speech halfway through the film. Jean-Pierre (Michael Lonsdale), a grizzled and philosophical collector of miniature soldiers, explains the Japanese legend as he gives sanctuary to Sam and Vincent after Sam has been wounded by bad guys. It's as if Frankenheimer – or one of the pesky producers – had last-minute misgivings about whether moviegoers could sit patiently through an hour of the story before learning the significance of the foreign-sounding label.
Such cheesiness feels strangely patronizing, especially in a movie that is rife with delicious ambiguity, a movie whose very subject matter in fact seems to be the realm of equivocation and betrayal. Several members of the jaded paramilitary quintet, each of whose allegiance and motivation is suspect, allude to the fact that they were rounded up by an unnamed (and unseen) man in a wheelchair, and it is never clear, even at the film's bitter end, exactly what the highly-sought-after piece of luggage contains.
These are not my quibbles with "Ronin," however. Indeed, what superficial murkiness it possesses is its very forte. Still, the screenplay by J.D. Zeik and Richard Weisz only dips its toe in the vast ocean of tough-guy metaphysics, as when it ruminates on such pretentious hooey as the "code of the battlefield" and a series of wannabe-Zenlike "rules" instilled in Sam by his one-time affiliation with the CIA.
"Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt," he tells Vincent.
(Ah so, grasshopper.)
Despite some ingenious touches, as when Sam and Dierdre pose as tourists to snap photos of their elusive quarry, much of the time "Ronin" feels like a high-brow Steven Seagal film, with massive gun battles that casually disregard civilian casualties and too many overlong car chases through the twisty streets of Paris and Nice. Frankenheimer even smashes one car into a fishmonger's stand – as if we haven't ever seen that hoary cliche» before. And a scene of autos speeding through an underground tunnel is unnervingly reminiscent of a reenactment of Princess Di's demise.
Trite though it may be, the action is tautly edited and the film's picturesque French locales, including an ancient stone arena in Arles, go a long way toward diverting attention from its narrative implausibilities and credulous plot coincidences.
Late in the game, when Dierdre's boss Seamus (Jonathan Pryce) enters the picture and double-cross turns into triple-, quadruple- and quintuple-cross, I began to lose track of who wanted the bloody suitcase and why.
And, like Frankenheimer's mercenary gaggle of blase post-Cold Warriors, I no longer particularly cared.
Overall, it was okay. The story line was decent and the car chases were well done. It kept my interest and is worth a watch only if you rent it. Its not worth watching multiple times. The ending has a decent plot twist which was nice.
"Ronin" finds John Frankenheimer and Robert De Niro joining forces and providing decent entertainment in the form of a few, extremely well-choreographed and executed car chases. As for every other aspect of the film, however, that's where we run into a bit of trouble. It's not as though the narrative itself is poorly constructed. If anything, it's straightforward in its approach. De Niro and Co. are assembled to acquire a mysterious briefcase before unsavory parties can. Problem is, that's essentially all there is to this movie and that fact really, really airs out the weight of everything at hand. I'm not necessarily asking for a profound study on duty (which the movie half-heartedly attempts to do at a point) or anything. Characters with discernible personalities is definitely a start. Characters with discernible personalities having interesting conversations is an even better start. Neither of these elements really make an appearance, though, ultimately leaving the audience with an incredibly dry and fleeting cinematic experience.
John Frankenheimer's ''Ronin'' is too serious to be a fun popcorn movie and simply too bad, to be a good serious action/thriller. Overall it's a disappointing film. It has some good action sequences and good performances from De Niro and Reno (as you would expect) to save this movie. The the plot seems inevitably simple but turns out to be confusing at the beginning and barely gets clear along the way.
Also, the whole plot is just a massive McGuffin that goes nowhere, as always with McGuffin plots.