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.

To start with, I really liked the movie. Not because of the slightly far-fetched plot, but mostly for the fact that Penn once again proved he is really a powerhouse actor. I appreciate the fact that this film focused to a great extent on his acting and not on special effects and computer animation as most action movies tend to do these days. I read some critical reviews focusing mostly on his age and the not so familiar to the large audience Jasmine Trinca. I think she did great as well. I guess most people today will not appreciate an action film unless it is "action" all the way through. I have seen movies with really meaningless plots getting rated a lot higher. Anyway, in my humble opinion, Sean Penn is still one of the best and charismatic actors that have appeared on screen and he proved it once again as his acting is still great in The Gunman.

Terrier (Sean Penn) is an assassin working with a covert team on a mission in the Democratic Republic Of Congo. He is tasked with assassinating a key mining official in The Democratic Republic Of Congo and after successfully completing this task he is told to flee the country. Years later Terrier returns to the DOC as a civilian but finds himself under attack by a group of mercenaries who attempt to assassinate Terrier in response to him killing a key official in the DOC. Terrier must now try to establish who is trying to kill him....The Gunman is a film that is set in the Democratic Republic Of Congo, London & Gibraltar so it does provide for some nice on set locations - the news footage in the DOC does give the film a sense of realism as well. Unfortunately, this is one of those films that suffers slightly by jumping about from place to place. It's another one of those films where we flit from place to place trying to establish who did what and who set who up? The trouble is that it moves around so much and jumps from person to person so quickly that it can be very easy to lose track of what's going on - it also doesn't help that the main story isn't that compelling either. Things move along here at a snail's pace and the convoluted nature of the narrative will almost guarantee that boredom will settle in very quickly.The Gunman offers very little we haven't seen before and perhaps the only thing that is of interest here is seeing Sean Penn in this type of role; I got the feeling that Penn had seen how successful Morrel and Neeson had worked in the first Taken film and decided that he wanted a piece of the action. May be Penn wanted to offer the world an alternative 'middle-aged' action star to Liam Neeson and perhaps, in time, this is something that may work out for Penn. However, I think that he may need to look at projects with better material if he is truly able to offer the public a viable alternative in this role.This film is also going to disappoint fans of Idris Elba as he is only in the film for about 10 minutes and doesn't appear till very late in the film (despite the fact that he gets Top Billing here). Ray Winstone shows up and does his usual stick and none of the other actors really make a mark (with the possible exception of Mark Rylance).The Gunman is largely convoluted and boring, but I have to admit that the final 20 minutes or so are excellent - this is really where Morrel is allowed to breathe some life into the picture. The action in these final few minutes is never top-drawer, but it did enough to keep me engaged and it's a shame that the first 90 minutes or so were not up to the same standard.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Professional assassin Terrier (Sean Penn) was on a mission in Congo many years ago, where a hit on an important minister went wrong and forced him into hiding. Years later, after returning to Africa, an attempt on his life is made, and he is determined to find out why. After tracking down his old associate Cox (Mark Rylance) in London, he learns that all the other members involved in that assassination have been getting hit as well, and after some help from old pal Stanley (Ray Winstone), he heads to Barcelona, reunites with old flame Annie (Jasmine Trinca) and attempts to get to the bottom of a very complicated web of deception.After years of accused ageism in Hollywood, the stars with a few more miles on their clock are seemingly getting lead roles once again, and the trend seems to be set on turning them into action heroes. There was Liam Neeson in the Taken movies, and Kevin Costner in 3 Days to Kill, and now Sean Penn is the latest 50+ star to have a stab with this thriller that appears a lot more considered than it is. That older actors are being put in these roles is an indication that there aren't enough younger, up and coming stars with the meat on their bones to do these roles, but also that this kind of material matches the sell by date of the older actors.It starts with what seems a pretty intricate set up, but before long it's become clear it's just a fairly standard, join the dots action thriller, that follows all the clichés to a tee and is fairly predictable to boot. An all star cast, including Javier Bardem and Idris Elba, are scattered all over the place in roles that pretty much serve to extend the clichés (the old pal, the love interest, the one who'll stab him in the back.) They all play the parts well, and there is a more mature feel to match the more mature stars, but that's as high as the recommendations go.Ultimately, a star with a bit more Hollywood firepower is getting to have a second coming with the type of thing Steven Seagal makes a living from. **