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Title: Ronin (1998)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Robert De Niro | ... | Sam | |
| Jean Reno | ... | Vincent | |
| Natascha McElhone | ... | Deirdre | |
| Stellan Skarsgård | ... | Gregor | |
| Sean Bean | ... | Spence | |
| Skipp Sudduth | ... | Larry | |
| Michael Lonsdale | ... | Jean-Pierre | |
| Jan Tríska | ... | Dapper Gent | |
| Jonathan Pryce | ... | Seamus O'Rourke | |
| Ron Perkins | ... | Man with the Newspaper | |
| Féodor Atkine | ... | Mikhi | |
| Katarina Witt | ... | Natacha Kirilova | |
 |
Bernard Bloch | ... | Sergi |
|
|
Dominic Gugliametti | ... | Clown Ice Skater |
|
|
Alan Beckworth | ... | Clown Ice Skater |
Ronin is the Japanese word used for Samurai without a master. In this case, the Ronin are outcast specialists of every kind, whose services are available to everyone - for money. Dierdre (undoubtedly from Ireland) hires several Ronin to form a team in order to retrieve an important suitcase from a man who is about to sell it to the Russians. After the mission has been completed successfully, the suitcase immediately gets switched by a member of the team who seems to work into his own pocket. The complex net of everyone tricking everyone begins to surface slowly, and deadly... Written by Julian Reischl <julianreischl@mac.com>
Every once in a rare while comes an action movie that is also a genuinely good film. This is one of those movies. What makes these uncommon movies what they are is simple: plot. No movie can compromise that and in recent years Hollywood has been doing just that to show off it's million dollar special effects and two cent story lines. This film has both pulse pounding breakneck action scenes and developed and interesting story.
The story starts when mercenaries are hired to retrieve a secret silver briefcase with mysterious contents. The mission goes awry with betrayal and we soon find out that everyone has their own motives and goals with the mysterious silver case.
The cast is good and the direction is smooth and keeps the story flowing and it'll keep you guessing right up to the very end about just exactly what is going on and who everyone is. Then, there are the car chases and they are awesome. Truly awesome and even legendary by now. Just like classics like 'Bullitt' and 'The French Connection' and goofy camp films of the seventies (like the original 'Gone in 60 Seconds') this film uses no hyper-crazy CGI in its action scenes and that proves all for the better since it is an action movie, but it cannot lose all it's credibility for the sake of some cars crashing. A thrill needs to be at least partly believable, otherwise it won't be thrilling. In fact the whole film has a more realistic feel to it with the relentlessness of the action being not over the top, but still enjoyable for fans of the genre. Then there are the characters who much more real as they don't snap wise cracks while shooting bad guys square in the head one handed with a pistol at 30 yards.
All in all, this is a very good entry in the action genre and Hollywood should take note. 8/10
Rated R for violence