Ronin

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1998
Country of origin:	UK / USA
Director:	John Frankenheimer
Genre:	Pre-Bourne, Bourne-lite thriller. I think
Starring:	Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Sean Bean, Stellan Skarsgård, Jonathan Pryce
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690/
Tagline:	Your ally could become your enemy
Favourite line:	"If you don't mind, I'm gonna pass out."

I'm not sure why but, for some reason, this movie always gets mixed up in my drug addled mind with Léon, the Luc Besson movie which also happens to star super suave Frenchman Jean Reno. I guess it's simply the Euro-centric feel throughout.
Anyway, that utter irrelevance aside, this is an intelligent thriller with a complex, meandering plotline involving a mysterious luggage case that two terrorist parties are desperate to lay their hands on.
The movie focuses on one side of the scheming teams, the Irish, who will do just about anything to get their hands on the package before their rivals of terror, the Russians, manage it.
With a veritable avalanche of muscular actors, this could be accused of being a boys film and, truthfully, the good lady I watched it with claimed it was 'boring' and, sadly, she might have a point. Whilst the action scenes are handled with a deftness of touch John Woo would be proud of, the dialogue interchanges become tiresome as, for even a seasoned boys movie watcher like myself, the plot became befuddled. Pretty soon you don't have a clue who is doing what to who or why and, whilst that may be the point, it is incredibly frustrating as a viewer.
The presence of de Niro, Reno and Pryce almost makes up for the annoyance, but not quite. Whilst far from dreadful, if you want testosterone fuelled espionage I'd reach for Bourne over this every time.