{"id":3493,"date":"2015-04-13T11:14:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=3493"},"modified":"2015-04-13T11:35:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:35:32","slug":"the-gunman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/action\/the-gunman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gunman ***"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }\n--><\/style>\n<p>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/thegunman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3494\" alt=\"thegunman\" src=\"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/thegunman.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/thegunman.jpg 450w, https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/thegunman-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Sean Penn is hoping that <em>Taken<\/em> director Pierre Morel will help turn him carve out an \u2018aging action hero career\u2019 &#8211; like he has Liam Neeson &#8211; in <em>The Gunman<\/em>, based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette? Penn certainly has hit the gym for the part (and a tanning salon), never missing a beat to get torso-naked in this latest action flick. And you can\u2019t deny the 54-year-old the exposure \u2013 he looks super fit for it. It\u2019s just the film\u2019s credibility lets him down, rather than Penn\u2019s physical presence.<\/p>\n<p>Penn plays Jim Terrier, a former Special Forces op, turned security personnel (Gunman) for hire, tasked with protecting mine workers in the Congo. After turning mercenary assassin and killing the country\u2019s minister of mines for an undisclosed multinational, Terrier goes into hiding, leaving behind medic girlfriend Annie (Jasmine Trinca). Fast forward a few years and Terrier is now security for a quango on the same continent. One day he is hunted down by a hit squad in connection with the former minister\u2019s killing. Terrier goes on an international hunt of his own to find who is behind the hit. Meanwhile, ex-girlfriend Annie is living with the dubious Felix (Javier Bardem) in Spain, himself involved in the whole assassination plot in the Congo, but now a businessman.<\/p>\n<p>The combination of corruption, money and power is always a powerful film aphrodisiac, as <em>The Gunman<\/em> proves and relies on. Kind of like a cross between <em>Taken<\/em> (for the revenge part) and <em>Blood Diamond<\/em> (starring DiCaprio, for the location), the film portrays the whole dangerous setting at the start and introduces Terrier to us as someone who hasn\u2019t quite got his moral compass working. Penn is suitably twitchy in the role, suspicious of everything and obviously not completely straight as a die.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s after the assassination, a few years later, that things make you pause for thought and think, \u2018Hang on? What\u2019s made Terrier a changed man all of a sudden?\u2019. Is it a bout of guilt? He\u2019s still carrying a gun but now he\u2019s on the peace-keepers\u2019 side. Maybe the implication is Terrier goes where the cash is, which makes you ask the question that surely he\u2019d be doing something for bigger bucks than for a quango? Still, the pace of the film \u2013 which never has a dull moment in the first half \u2013 never lets you dwell too long and find such inconsistencies, or it has Penn get naked to through such thoughts off course.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s Bardem again in another \u2018throwaway\u2019 role that allows him to go crazy (as usual) before he is disposed of. As much as Bardem plays one of the best \u2018crazies\u2019 it feels a touch samey for the talented actor in this. Even more shocking is the albeit brief appearance of Idris Elba whose part could have been played by any bit actor of any cop drama fame as Elba is totally underused.<\/p>\n<p>Still, if you can\u2019t get enough Bond\/Bourne-style shoot-outs, escapes, booby traps and punch-ups, <em>The Gunman<\/em> delivers more than enough to delight in, accumulating in the bull ring at the end with a very \u2018abrupt\u2019 demise. There is also an even more dubious finale that has you counting on your fingers just how old Terrier could be and how being away has made him even more youthful (and possibly toned). It\u2019s a Penn vanity project, an action-revenge, \u2018by-the-numbers\u2019 offering that could have been more credible and deeper in purpose with better writing. After all, its mature star is more than willing to throw his weight around to portray its energetic protagonist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By @FilmGazer<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FilmGazer\">Follow on Twitter<\/a><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZrUVEca2AuA\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Perhaps Sean Penn is hoping that Taken director Pierre Morel will help turn him carve out an \u2018aging action hero career\u2019 &#8211; like he has Liam Neeson &#8211; in The Gunman, based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette? Penn certainly has hit the gym for the part (and a tanning salon), never missing a &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/action\/the-gunman\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Gunman ***&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,6],"tags":[211,3310,201,3309,3308,517,3307],"class_list":["post-3493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-drama","category-thriller","tag-idris-elba","tag-jasmine-trinca","tag-javier-bardem","tag-jean-patrick-manchette","tag-pierre-morel","tag-sean-penn","tag-the-gunman"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3496,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493\/revisions\/3496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}