Review of Ronin (1998) by Tim F — 17 Sep 2009

Story of a group of out of work government agents (Robert De Niro, Sean Bean, Jean Reno, and Stellan Skarsgaard) who find themselves seeking opportunities in a post cold war society, hence the analogy to ronin who were master less samurai warriors in feudal Japan. These modern day ronin accept a job from a mysterious Irish woman (Natasha McElhone) who hires them to use their specialized skills to obtain a mysterious case. The relatively straight forward assignment though is far from that and we have numerous complications and more than one double cross ahead of us.

Great international cast, especially for what appears to be a genre picture. The film features some amazing car chases down narrow winding cobblestone streets, this film actually makes the car chase which had become such a routine fixture of films suddenly look exciting again. The film also benefits from the wonderful locations that are utilized in the South of France.

In addition to aforementioned cast members we also have Jonathan Pryce, Michael Lonsdale, Skipp Sudduth and Katarina Witt in a cameo as not surprisingly a figure skater. While this stellar cast isnâ??t pushed in to great dramatic heights they are given enough to do to show us their talents and just the presence of such performers heightens almost every scene.

This would be the next to last theatrical release from talented director John Frankenheimer who also gave us â??The Manchurian Candidateâ?? and â??The Birdman of Alcatrazâ?? amongst others.

The final ingredient to the film success would have to be the script by David Mamet the noted American writer and filmmaker who is credited as Richard Weisz due to a conflict over his contributions.

The contents of the case are never revealed because whats in the case isn't as important as the story, this follows a long film tradition of a MacGuffin which was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock.