The Gunman

This review may contain spoilers!

Frankly this so-called 'action film' had more men grumbling at each other than any real action. I would give The Gunman a 6/10.

The Gunman had some great stunt work where action scenes were present; the fight choreography moved really well. I also thought that a lot could be said for the cinematography, visually this film always had a really distinct and gritty style. This film also had some really well written dialogue that served to ground the characters.

Sean Penn, who played Terrier, was a good leading man; his smooth and calm air in the action sequences was countered by his fantastic wild outbursts in dialogue exchanges. Javier Bardem, who played Felix, was a chaotic role to watch; this obsessive and envious civilian role showed Bardem's strength as an actor. Idris Elba, who played DuPont, came into the film and brought it right back up; his role was very formal and laid down ultimatums in a very intimidating and calculated way.

However it was Mark Rylance, who played Cox, that really stood out in this film. Rylance took the tactical role of this character very seriously; showing a great deal of intelligence in his performance. However he also made Cox raunchy and a bit sadistic in his humour. Rylance also developed the character well; turning the role into a corporate war-monger that thrived on greed and self-preservation.

This film suffered majorly in how it was paced, the action was far too drawn out and the scenes dragged out. The editing didn't help this much, using basic cuts to jump the action in slow and unappealing ways. Furthermore the plot as a whole was a little weak, it didn't have the suspension of disbelief that the Taken films allowed for but rather seemed to pull Penn out of the fire by happenstance.

Jasmine Trinca, who played Annie, was a character that really bugged me; she was a classic damsel in distress and was caught in a cock fight between two characters that didn't really deserve her loyalty. Ray Winstone, who played Stanley, was a very boring character; I completely forgot about him at one point until the film picked him back up out of necessity.