RONIN RATING: 7.5 / 10 --> Re-watchable
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Director John Frankenheimer makes us forget about his last disastrous outing along the fat, old, powder-faced legend of the acting community, Marlon Brando (THE ISLAND OF DR.MOREAU (5/10)) and hops right into an old-fashioned espionage/car chase caper starring the always interesting, Robert DeNiro.
PLOT: A band of rogue mercenaries are hired by an unknown employer to recover a mysterious briefcase in France. Unknown to one another, the group attempt to reach their goal, while constantly keeping an eye on each other. Lots of car chases through narrow streets, shoot-outs and double-crossings pepper this lengthy thriller.
CRITIQUE: Interesting, thrilling, well directed, yet overlong picture features a couple of excellent car chases, fun shoot-outs, and solid acting. Think HEAT (8/10) meets THE FRENCH CONNECTION (6/10) in Paris! This film didn't pack the deepest story line of all time (chase the briefcase everybody!), but it did manage to keep me entertained through most of its lengthy sitting, and even sparked some new life into the standard car chase scenes. I can't truly say that I understood the finale, but for some reason, it didn't really bother me either. I was quite entertained by the film, and didn't really mind the semi-puzzling ending.
DeNiro was cool as a cat, as per his usual method style, and was graced with some of the hipper lines in this movie (Did you ever kill a guy? Deniro's response: "No, but I hurt somebody's feelings once.") The rest of the cast was also pretty solid, with Skarsgård standing out from the pack. The score of the film also set the right atmosphere, as did the wonderful cinematography, featuring the wonderful splendor of France. The only negative points that I recognized in this film could be that its final resolution was a little ambiguous, and that its run-time was about twenty minutes too long.
Overall, this film will surely appeal to you if you enjoyed the previously mentioned HEAT or FRENCH CONNECTION, and will definitely not disappoint any DeNiro or car chase fans. This year has not been a great year for thrillers, but RONIN makes sure that it is present when all names are called. Strap yourself in, learn some French, and get ready for a bumpy ride!!
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Screenwriter Richard Weisz is actually the one and f-kin' only, David Mamet. Apparently, he is responsible for almost the entire screenplay, but the Writer's Guild of America decided that he had to share credit with J.D. Zeik, who originated the story, so Mamet elected to go with the pseudonym instead. None of the actors in this film were ever told what was really supposed to be in the briefcase. The actual contents of the case were really chocolate bars during the filming of this movie. The finished project also left 83 cars "injured" after shooting wrapped. Ironically, director Frankenheimer also directed the dismal sequel to THE FRENCH CONNECTION, called THE FRENCH CONNECTION II. Born in New York and raised in Queens, John always wanted to become a professional tennis player. Robert DeNiro is the son of Robert De Niro Snr, an abstract expressionist, and Virginia Admiral, a painter. He studied acting at the Actors Studio with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. In his 1980 Oscar acceptance speech, Bobby thanked Joey LaMotta, who was at the time suing United Artists for RAGING BULL's (7.5/10), portrayal of him. In 1995, he and his girlfriend Toukie Smith had twin sons, conceived by in-vitro fecundation. Jonathan Pryce was one of the stars of DARK BLOOD, along with Judy Davis and River Phoenix but the movie was never released due to Phoenix's death during filming in 1993.
Review Date: September 29, 1998
Director: John Frankenheimer
Writers: J.D. Zeik and Richard Weisz (AKA David Mamet)
Producer: Frank Mancuso Jr.
Actors: Robert DeNiro as Sam
Jean Reno as Vincent
Stellan Skarsgård as Gregor
Natascha McElhone as Dierdre
Jonathan Pryce as Seamus
Genre: Thriller
Year of Release: 1998
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(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
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