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Review by Susan Granger
2½ stars out of 4
Despite the pretentious opening statement which informs us:
"In feudal Japan, the warrior class of samurai were sworn to protect
their liege lords with their lives. Those samurai whose liege was
killed suffered great shame and...were no longer referred to as
samurai...such men were called Ronin," motor vehicle action is what
obsesses director John Frankenheimer who, earlier in his career,
helmed "Grand Prix" and "French Connection II." Set not in feudal
Japan but in contemporary France, the characters are scruffy, cynical
veterans of the Cold War who, after the dissolution of the Eastern
Bloc, have become mercenaries. They're hardly "The Magnificent Seven"
or "The Dirty Dozen," but they'd like to be. There's Robert De Niro,
an ex-CIA operative; Frenchman Jean Reno; an ex-KGB electronics and
surveillance expert, Stellan Skarsgard; Sean Bean, a weapons whiz; and
Skipp Sudduth, a hotshot driver. Recruited individually by Natascha
McElhone, as a cool, close-mouth'd Irishwoman, they're assigned to
steal a mysterious suitcase so that the Irish can have its contents
before it's sold to a group of rich Russians. But what starts as a
simple ambush-and-assault turns into a series of double-crosses and
bloody betrayal, eventually leading them to an international ice show,
where Katarina Witt is stalked by a sniper in a scene reminiscent of
Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate." The complex and often
confusing screenplay is by J.D. Zeik and "Richard Weisz", a pseudonym
allegedly concocted by David Mamet because he did not want to share
screen credit. And, worst of all, the film ends without ever coming to
a satisfying conclusion. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10,
"Ronin" is a chaotic 6. It's car chases, stunts and carnage in search
of a story.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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