Gunman

Qu'est-ce qui a conduit Sean Penn des performances d'acteur et de réalisateur oscarisées de "Into the Wild" au rôle de héros d'action dans une coproduction avec Joel Silver ? Un profit dont un autre acteur de caractère, Liam Neeson, ne pouvait même pas rêver autrefois et maintenant il en a trois par an ? "The Gunman" ne cherche pas à être à la mode, il cherche à être sale et sombre, avec un héros principal ambiguëment propre. Personnellement, cette direction me convient et je n'ai aucun problème avec le personnage de Penn. Au contraire, c'est ce qui rend le film intéressant et différent de ses homologues de genre, qui sinon ne se démarquent en rien. Le scénario semble avoir été écrit il y a vingt ans, à l'époque du Jack Ryan de Ford (où il aurait été une "alternative sombre" intéressante). Et surtout, il s'attarde inutilement sur une intrigue romantique dont le spectateur n'est pas curieux dans l'action environnante. (26/03/2015)

As long as I tried to connect Rambo-like amicable repentance, financial tricks, empty love triangles, and Jim's own past, The Gunman held my attention with one hand and cut off branches with more and more characters with the other. But after leaving the cinema, the impressions of the action disintegrate into mere contemplation of how Sean Penn can pump up muscles like this after fifty and why Idris Elba appeared only when the film was almost ending. Unfortunately, Pierre Morel is also a man worth shooting, who proves that 96 Hours was the peak of his career, after which he is merely going downhill. (18/03/2015)

A B-movie filmed as an A-movie. Sean Penn is incredibly fit for his age and the action scenes are some of the best of this genre, but there are too few of them and you can’t enjoy them properly when the hero starts keeling over prematurely due to brain damage. And when we’re on the topic of laying down, the romantic storyline with the love triangle seems like it’s been copied out of a textbook - reminiscent of French movies of the 70s. The acting aces (why does Bardem always have that look on his face?) are almost unused (Idris Elba made a more or less a cameo appearance) and Penn doesn’t put on a very impressive performance despite his damaged character. This terribly average story with such realistically unpleasant characters was probably impossible to save. And the shamelessly stilted finale was impressive only for the location. It’s one of those unshocking, but uninspiring movie that you might watch on TV, but paying to see it at the movie theater would be a waste of money. Both Morel and Penn can do better. (21/03/2015)

Something between Payback and Blood Diamond. There's the same politics and disputes over a country's mineral wealth, as well as a love triangle that doesn't quite work and is rather secondary. Maybe it's not as romantic or grand, but I don't expect any wilderness from Pierre Morel, rather a story that has pace and doesn't bother with unnecessary digressions that would hinder quality action – and that's exactly what I got. I haven't seen Sean Penn this loaded before, and it's quite nice, with dynamic, proper and well edited action and an excellent final fight. I wouldn't hesitate to say it's a solid addition to the genre. Definitely nothing new what do you really expect from Morel? (21/03/2015)

A thoroughbred Hollywood action flick with a good cast, exotic enough and formally classy, and with a hero that’s impossible not to root for. But at the same time, everything feels so overly ambitious, super-cleverly conspiratorial and wannabe bold that it ended up irritating rather than entertaining me. Penn is OK, but Bardem is miscast in the worst role of his career so far, while Idris Elba should be compensated by the filmmakers for wasting his precious talent. The script is also out of place, unfortunately. It pretends to be an exotic B-movie within the thematic framework of Three Days of the Condor, but with secondary motifs that are uninteresting, a tone-deaf and a romantic storyline that doesn’t work very well, while the identity of the villain will be clear to any dork around the 20th minute. Everything is saved by the expertly executed and exciting action sequences that make us feel, at least at times, in really expensive company... 55% (11/01/2016)

I didn't want to believe in this negative rating, but this is truly a movie that just pretends to be very serious and conscious, but in the end, it's just an action spectacle where Sean Penn shows that it's not a problem for him to show his bare chest even after the age of fifty and to express that a man can do it if he wants to. (19/07/2016)

In the genre of action thrillers, The Gunman certainly holds its ground, offering quite a gripping spectacle. Sean Penn, in the lead role, proves once again that he is rightfully among the best American actors. It doesn't concern his acting qualities, but I must mention that I wondered where the hell he got those perfectly sculpted muscles in his old age. Under the impression of recent films I've seen, however, I must deduct one star from my original plan. After all, this drama stands and falls with one single character, embodied by Sean Penn. (65%) (12/05/2020)