The Gunman

Last week I happened upon a movie I had completely missed. I was watching a WatchMojo video on Youtube about great sniper scenes in movies when they mentioned The Gunman (2015).

As I said, this movie had completely gone under my radar, but the scene was good and the synopsis seemed okay, so I gave it a shot.

What we have is Sean Penn in one of his, in my opinion, best roles ever. He is a private security contractor (mercenary) in the Congo. He's in love with a relief worker doctor, but he suddenly has to leave Africa, leaving her behind.

A few years later, he's back in the Congo this time digging wells when mercenaries try to kill him and he realizes that he's a target for elimination. Find out who's behind it, etc. etc.

The story isn't that original in and of itself, but it's how the movie has been built up that makes it good. Good pacing and overall wonderful timing.

Terrier (Penn) is a highly skilled veteran soldier, but age and illness is catching up with him and he has to be clever to succeed. This is a welcome change from the super soldier that usually headlines action movies, and the main reason why The Gunman is more a thriller with a lot of action than an action movie with an actual plot.

The supporting cast is excellent, with Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone and Idris Elba leading the pack. There are no bad actors here, but it should be noted that Idris Elba is monstrously underused. For such a high billing he's barely in the film.

It's a pretty movie, to be sure, over all very well done. The fight scenes deserves a comment though. I have railed against the deplorable tendencies in modern films to over use shaky cam during fights. In this film, the fights are a bit shaky, sure, but not too much. It's never a problem to understand what's happening and unusually, they miss a lot. No one is a god-like marksman, in fact I'd say most bullets miss the targets. This is a nice deviation from the usual Hollywood machismo.

Bottom line, I liked this film. I recommend The Gunman if you want a good action/thriller.

Until next time, have a great week!