Ronin (2006, DVD)

There's a scene early in Ronin where we get the feeling of where this movie is going. We see Robert DeNiro walking down a Paris street to a cafe of sorts where a meeting is going to take place. We see the other meeting guests arrive and we watch as DeNiro carefully scouts the place out. We then see him enter and test the other door to see if there's another exit before announcing, "I never walk into a room I don't know how to walk out of".

There is the essence of Ronin. The movie is an action-adventure flick that is actually smart, yet human. It has characters that are smart, yet they aren't superheroes. In fact, they occasionally make mistakes (as demonstrated by a scene where one character says to another after their query has escaped "Why didn't you shoot her?".)

In Ronin, the emphasis is generally more on the people than on the action. We don't dive into the shooting 5 minutes after the opening credits. In fact, it's a good 20 minutes into the film before the serious action starts. In the meantime, we have been introduced to our main characters.

These characters are of different nationalities and have different background, yet they all fall into the category of hired guns, free-lancers if you will. One of them named Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard) is a former KGB agent. The main one, played by DeNiro, is a former CIA agent who guys by the name of Sam. There is also a Frenchman named Vincent played by Jean Reno, a Brit named Spence played by Sean Bean and another American named Larry played by Skip Sudduth. These men were all once team players who found themselves cut from the team when the cold war ended and so they became hired guns, much like the Ronin (The Japanese Samurai for hire that the film takes its name from).

A woman named Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), who is in the employ of a mysterious man named Seamus, assembles the Ronin in a Paris warehouse. Their mission, which they choose to accept, is to steal a heavily guarded briefcase before it is sold to some Russians. I'd advise people coming to this film for the first time not to worry too much about the briefcase, as it is what movie cliche experts refer to as a McGuffin. All it is a set-up for loyalties to change, sides to be switched, some great action sequences and two car chases that rank up there with the one in Bullit.

When I first saw Ronin upon its theatrical release in 1998, I remember commenting that it succeeded as a good action/suspense tale where the Brian DePalma helmed version of Mission Impossible failed, in creating memorable characters and decent suspense and offering up plot twists that were actually unpredictable. Now I will add that Ronin also trumps last year's The Bourne Identity in all of those aspects as well as in the chase scenes.

I choose to say no more about the chase scenes as they are best seen without knowing too much about them. Instead I will offer a couple of caveats for the sensitive viewer. First off, there are quite a few instances of subtitles in this movie, so if you don't like to read, you'd be advised to not watch this movie. Also, for those who with weak stomachs, there is a scene where DeNiro has a bullet surgically removed. I'm not as repulsed by gore as some other moviegoers, yet I always find myself wincing at times during this scene, thinking of the pain involved.

DeNiro gives what may be one of his best performances. He is initially seen as a sort of tough guy, yet there are moments of humanity (the surgery scene and a scene towards the end when he tries to save the life of a woman soon to be caught in the middle of a crossfire) that gives his character even more dimension. In a sense, Sam is the quintessence of cool, much like Steve McQueen in the aforementioned Bullit.

Reno, still best known as The Professional (from the movie of the same name), is also good as Vincent who winds up becoming Sam's partner of sorts. And Jonathan Pryce makes a good mystery man/possible villain as the mysterious Seamus.

A memo to the head honchos of Hollywood: Ronin serves as an example of how to make a good action movie. Give us great characters, plenty of suspense and a storyline that isn't predictable as hell, get some good even great actors to star in it, make sure the script is written by people who know how to write good scripts (in this case JD Zeik and David Mamet) and you're set. Please follow this advice again at some point in the future.