Rating: Summary: They are not heroes Review: The main charcters in the movie are not supposed to be heroes, as the reviwer from Australia writes. Despite the fact that one is a CIA agent (I won't say who), the recovery of the contents of the briefcase outweigh any civilian loses. In addition, the people who are responsible for the deaths (The ones who shoot in crowds, and drive the cras) are the mercenary characters, not the goverment agents. I love movies where the main characters are NOT heroes...it gives movies much more new emotions and actions to explore. Ronin is a fine Friday night movie.
Rating: Summary: Numbingly violent, plot hard to follow Review: I really had trouble following the plot of this movie, and I think it's because it bored me. It's somewhat off-putting when the stars of the film don't seem to have any values to speak of, nor respect for human life. What I took away from this film was a sense of puzzlement over how money could become more important to someone than the value of another person. Very violent and depicts many civilian, bystander casualties without portraying any regrets or consequences whatsoever. I gave it three stars because of the stylish car chase scenes and the fact that DeNiro was in it.
Rating: Summary: A well directed, non-inspired movie, that you could pass. Review: There are things I enjoy in a movie. One of these is NOT, someone else's ideas. What I mean... Quentin Tarantino, as we all now know, made his debut with 'Reservoir Dogs'. A duplication of Ringo Lam's 'City on Fire'. Now, we see, John Frankenheimer, an acclaimed director, leaving the burdon of an entire movie, to a couple of car chase scenes, that I admit are blood chilling. BUT, Ringo Lam, has, again, made a movie, also in Nice, also with two car chases, also using same shots, only three years earlier. With the known Hong-Kong style, he directed 'Maximum Risk'. It is as if Frankenheimer told his Storyboard Artists, 'Take this and make it classier.' Putting these scenes at the moments where the audience is beggining to get bored by the lame story. The story that keeps one secret. The content of the 'case'. The case that we never find out what holds inside, as in Tarantino's own 'Pulp Fiction'. I mean, hello!, this guy is Frankenheimer for chrissake... Give him a screenplay he can work on. Other than that... nothing much. Not even DeNiro, not even Reno. Thanks.
Rating: Summary: Cool car chases, but a great deal of unpleasantness Review: I love car chase movies (my favourites being Die Hard with A Vengeance and Mad Max 2), and this has some of the fastest and best car chases I have ever seen. It's just a shame that the movies heroes weren't people I could get behind. They open fire in crowded streets, resulting in many bystanders getting shot, during one car chase they drive alongside a civilian vehicle as a shield (which results in the driver getting shot and killed), and then even more people get killed in the car pile up's (a truck drives over several vehicles). The heroes are usually supposed to protect civilians and prevent destruction of property, not the other way around.
Rating: Summary: Genuis Movie ! Review: Ronin is a pure action movie, with fast cars & Mean guns ! Robert De Niro is GREAT as usually, & the other actors is good to ! The car & "Street War" scenes is great ! The sound & Picture on this DVD is Excelent ! Buy it NOW !
Rating: Summary: A perfectly balanced ballet of suspense and thrill. Review: Ronin is a perfectly balanced ballet of suspense and thrill that does not insult your intelligence, but does not allow your intelligence to give into its natural sloth. The action scenes are well done and the story is fantastically told. The international intreague of the locations and cast only add to this film. Of course, the whole damn time your trying to figure out just what could possibly be in the infamous case (Pulp Fiction, anyone?) but your mind hardly has the chance to wander when watching this captivating movie. Bravo! Truly one of my favorites!
Rating: Summary: Brilliant Review: A Strange dark and gloomy start, Action pack lots of great twists to keep you guessing how its going to end, Jean Reno and De Niro were very well suited and the car chase tops The Italian Job, What was in that case??
Rating: Summary: One of the best stories I have ever seen! Review: This is one of the few actually believable action films. This is worth the money paid.
Rating: Summary: THE LOST HONOR OF THE SAMURAIS Review: A John Frankenheimer's movie is never innocent. You always have to search what's hidden behind the images this director present, to interpret the silences between the words spoken. And RONIN isn't so different from Frankenheimer's most interesting movies. Why RONIN ? A few lines, at the beginning of the film, explains than, in the medieval Japan, a samurai whose master has disappeared becomes in a certain way mad and, after having done reprehensible actions, kills himself by committing seppuku (hara-kiri). This samurai with a troubled mind is called a RONIN. Now we have to remember that Frankenheimer, in 1982, presented a great action movie, THE CHALLENGE, starring Scott Glenn, whose intention was to confront american and japanese points of view about moral questions. So why not concentrate ourselves on RONIN by having in mind that the real subject of the film is NOT the challenge to present the longest car chase ever filmed but something else. Hidden between gunshots and fast cars. Just think of a recurrent theme of RONIN : the suicidal ritual of the samurai, the Seppuku. Let's observe how one of the gang's hired man died in his car with an open throat. And Robert De Niro ! He will symbolically try to commit seppuku during surgery but will faint. In fact, the only character that will follow the strict code of honour of the samurais will be Deirdre. For sure, she knows exactly what she is doing when she abandons Seamus. But, here again, John Frankenheimer prefer not to be too explicit about the fate of the young irish woman. The alternate ending of RONIN would maybe give us the answer. A DVD in homage to one of the last great american directors of the 60's.
Rating: Summary: Mind numbingly boring - a real chore Review: This film conforms to the action genre and is formulaic from start to finish. De Niro again successfully provides proof that his acting carrer is coming to an end. I was confounded by Jean Reno's performance, he was hilarious in Les Visiteurs and Rosanna's Grave, a convincingly trechorous villian in Mission Impossble and an uneducated unsocialised assasin in Leon; yet his thespian projection in Ronin was neither interesting nor accurate and unfortunately for all concerned - explosions can not compensate for a unimaginative script. The direction of this celluloid nightmare was obvious from the opening credits, its just unfortunate that the director did not have an accident to stop 'this' career changing project - he may never work again, hopefully!
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