SnoopyStyle It's 2006. The Democratic Republic of Congo is on the verge as factions fight over mineral rights. Jim Terrier (Sean Penn) is having a fling with NGO doctor Annie and is part of a private security team. Government Minister cancels mining contracts and they are hired to assassinate the Minister. Felix (Javier Bardem) is their murky boss. Jim fires the kill shot and flees the Congo leaving Annie behind. Eight years later, Jim is back in the Congo doing humanitarian work. Gunmen attack his work site.I don't understand why he would go back to the Congo. It's a simple thing for him to do humanitarian work somewhere else and be attacked. There's no skin off the script. There is a social justice aspect to this action thriller but it mostly leans towards action thriller. It makes it less authentic and Penn is no action hero. It simply doesn't work being caught between the fun action genre and the serious message thriller genre. It still could have worked if he stayed in the Congo trying to protect his humanitarian work from various gunmen. Instead, he's globetrotting and this turns into a romantic melodrama. The middle falls into a slow muddle. I don't know what this is trying to be but it doesn't work.

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.

dansview Sean Penn did not age well. But I suppose you could say that an old assassin would look weathered. Also, the character is dealing with stuff that took place many years ago when he was younger.Having said that, it was awkward to watch a guy that old and gray portray an indestructible super hero. After all, that's what these type characters are. The Bourne guy, the Taken guy, etc. They know how to do everything and they can't be beaten. Unrealistic yes, but generally fun.There was plenty of action here. It wasn't boring from that standpoint. But like other reviewers said, there simply was not enough of a back story. Who was this guy? We didn't know, and even his girlfriend didn't know. At least show us a scene of them taking a romantic walk somewhere and talking about life. Otherwise we don't see any substance to their relationship. Who was the girl? Where was she from and what motivated her to be a volunteer doctor? Searching the globe for answers to why you are being targeted for assassination, and then beating everyone up along the way, is a tired plot by now. You can keep doing it for lack of better ideas, but at least infuse it with real emotion and history.How many times can Ray Winstone play essentially the same character? Let's get some new faces in these spy flicks. He was the same guy in the remake of Point Break.I turned it off about three quarters of the way through, so I guess for whatever reasons, it couldn't hold my attention. Probably because I felt that the rest was going to be more of the same and I had enough. I really had no feeling for the characters and couldn't care less what happened to them.I will give some credit to Penn for portraying the character as genuinely remorseful for the events that his work triggered.Good pacing, photography, and choreography.

Roland E. Zwick Based on the novel "The Prone Gunman" by Jean-Patrick Manchette, "The Gunman" is a conventional action-movie potboiler featuring a roided- out Sean Penn as an ex-special ops agent and professional assassin whose violent past is coming back to haunt him. The plot also encompasses a tedious love triangle, with Penn and Javier Badem duking it out over Jasmine Trinca ( though at least that part of the plot is done away with in reasonably short order). Written by Penn, Don Macpherson and Pete Travis and directed by Pierre Morel, this muddled mishmash of romantic entanglements, geopolitical intrigue, endless shootouts and personal redemption tale feels halfhearted and minor-league at best, despite the high- caliber talent in front of the cameras. Idris Alba, Mark Rylance and Ray Winstone are also part of the cast, but the fact that the majority of the film takes place in sunny Spain (it culminates at a bullfight, of all places!) makes us suspect that the actors were looking more for an all-expenses-paid European vacation than any kind of cinematic legacy when they signed on to be a part of "The Gunman."