Ronin has all the right elements stacked up for a successful project: top notch actors, a big budget, a splendid setting in pictoresque France, an intriguing spy story involving IRA, Russians... Indeed, the acting from De Niro and Jean Reno is very good. The suspense is well maintained throughout the movie and the twists are adequately used. The action scenes are OK considering it's a pre CGI flick. Indeed, most action scenes are about car chases on the narrow alleys of Paris and Nice spiced up with gun shot exchange. There's almost no martial art scenes. In this regard, its genre borders a fuzzy area between a thriller and an action movie. This is where the trouble begins. There's no character development for the main figures. We don't really know who De Niro character is or his purpose in joining a special team put together for stealing a suitcase. Even at the end of the movie we have no idea what the whole fuss was about because we don't know what's inside the suitcase. The suggested relation between Sam and Deirdre is contrived with a lack of chemistry. Indeed, N. McElhone looks single-dimensional and aloof in her Deirdre character. The dialogue among the team members is exceptionally tense and unconvincing. With that much negative attitude, egocentrism and lack of trust, those guys can't even walk on a street together let alone pulling off a dangerous mission. The pace of the movie is in general good but starts to sag and eventually becomes repetitive and boring towards the end. All in all, Ronin is an entertaining but forgettable movie.
