Lucia Ayala
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Jakoba
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
FreedomWatchTower
.:Not a native English speaker:.
After having seen the Movie for the first time after years of ignoring it, i finally gave in and bought myself the Film as Blu Ray, as for the shallow reason of the Cover and mention of Congo. When i first heard of the Movie it was said to be a possible Franchise starter and Sean Penn's take on the Old man taking back whats his, Taken/96 Hours formula. Boy was i on a ride of awkward disappointment of not having any expectations at all. When i bought the film it took about two months until i popped in the Disc and take on a ride where i never would have thought to speak this out loud, on what was an inconsistent near fatal mess with some rare great moments. Before i get to what was for me the personal, but undercooked highlight, i am going to talk about what on paper (depends on how you stand on Penn's political views, i guess) seems like a sure Win. The Cast surely is great, you have 6 great Actors forming the main protagonists consisting of Sean Penn, who has surely some great scenes and moments, Javier Bardem who again plays a great role as some kind of an ex best friend and colleague, Jasmine Trinca, who also plays her role really good and brings some interesting moments (even if there are few), Ray Winstone who, well he is Ray Winstone and has some fun dialogue to, even if his role is a bit of a cliche, Idris Elba which has some good acting but rather forgetable scenes (to be exact, a day passed since i saw the Movie and i cant remember any of his scenes), & Mark Rylance, who might be a great actor but in this Movie he has an awkward way of taling in a calm and rather quiet voice which makes especially later on an essential scene really awkward (Confrontation scene between him and Penn's character). The Film has some great Cinematography and beautiful colors from start to finish, especially the scenes that play in Spain and Congo. There are some cool Action scenes but some of them feel forced taked on the film, as for the reason of their context being rather, lets just say bizzare. Now to what where the two personal highlights that also show the two weakest links in the Film. The first is that the Film deals with the Political climate and corruption of the Congo, which sadly is of rare bread in our World, especially in Movies/TV Shows/Video Games. The film doesn't delve far enough into that field in my gusto, which makes the whole point or glue that holds the plot together more or less shallow. The second highlight and shortcoming is The Love Story, Love triangle between Penn, Bardem and Trinca, this is exacly the part where i thought and told a friend of that Film something like this "I never ever would have thought that i would see a Movie where the Love Story is far more interesting than the Action parts of this Action Thriller flick". I would watch in a heartbeat if there would be some form of reinterpretation of this Film with an emphasis on the Love part (im sure there already exists this Movie in some capacity), the personal surprise for me is that normally i do not like romantic Movies (with rare exceptions), but here it presented itself with best, most dramatic and engaging story of this lost opportunity. It deals with grief, broken promises, broken friendship, redemption, loss, giving up, anger and more.
I guarantee you that most of you will agree with me. To be fair, one of the Action scenes that is the best and most inventive i have seen in a long time was after a tragedy that occurs after a dramatic firefight of emotions, which results into an actual firefight, to spoil as little as possible, it is a scene involving a shower, a Burning house and how to escape it the best way while being hunted by mercenary's. So long story short, half arsed mess with some exceptional parts that get drown by its weight
cinemajesty
Always endangered to break under its over-complicated story-line, progressing from scene to scene without forgetting to grip on twisted suspense, "The Gunman" (2015) directed by "96 hours" (2008) director Pierre Morel surprisingly holds up under pressure with leading actor Sean Penn, carrying a heavy load in shape of a backpack from Central Africa to several locations in Europe in order to encounter one by one the demons of his past and eliminating any hostiles under hammering sound design and well-staffed properties of action combined with believable close to humanized relationships with supporting parts stretching from Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance as corrupted nemesis in a globalized world business of natural resources and actress Jasmine Trinca as the protagonist's love interest, who got the chemistry balanced enough to elevate this action thriller over the usual lone wolf clear-my-name revenge story.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)
Samuel-Shovel
It seems odd that such a talented actor as Sean Penn would require an action star rebranding but I guess that this was that attempt. And oh boy did it fail.This movie is a snoozefest. It contains a convoluted plot, poor dialogue, and (mostly) bland action scenes. This movie's 1 hour & 55 minutes and you painfully feel every second of them. It's shot fine and it has one or two good action scenes but none of that can make up for how forgettable this movie is. I found it on Netflix and saw it starred Penn, Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, and Mark Rylance and figured that this movie would at least be decent. Not even these great actors can help this film.About a forgettable of an action movie as I can think of. Not a recommend.
alon-dar1
I really expected much, at least an 8 out of these 2 amazing actors, Sean and Javier Bardem. I did not expect such a disappointing, boring, stupidly written "thriller" I rented the movie and felt sorry for every cent i paid, is Penn turning into Cage? What happens to these actors as they get older? and Javier? this actor played so bad, if there was an Oscar for bad acting he would get it. The holes in the plot are huge, the acting terrible, the story idiotic and boring, the directing slow and tiring. Don't watch it. i gave it a 3 because of my good manners, it should get a 1. If there is a movie that should have not been made, it is this one (and some of nick's, and Vin......)
