Stars: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Jonathan Pryce, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, Katarina Witt

Director: John Frankenheimer

Summary: A team of former intelligence agents meet in a disused warehouse in Paris where they begin one of their most deadly missions. An unknown employer tasks them with following a briefcase...

David Mamet wrote this screenplay under the name Richard Weisz, as a gun for hire, much like the masterless samurai of the film's title, who roamed Japan in the 19th century, loyal only to themselves. A group of men with highly developed skills are called to a meeting in a deserted warehouse in Paris. Sam (Robert De Niro), an American, may be ex-CIA. Vincent (Jean Reno), the terminally cool Frenchman, is a mystery. Russian computer whiz Gregor (Stellan Skarsgaard) is presumably ex-KGB, and Spence (Sean Bean), a British demolitions man, and Larry (Skipp Suddith), another Yank, round out the team. They've been hired by the IRA, through liaison Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), to steal a briefcase of unknown contents somewhere in Europe. As the unit races from one spectacular location on the French Riviera to another, the Tec-9 reigns, the body count mounts, some Russian gangsters get into the act, and the betrayals come fast and furious. In a rare comic moment, Sam stitches up his own bullet wound, an act of tongue-in-cheek Hemingwayism, and asks a friend to finish before he passes out. RONIN features an exceptional cast, sumptuous locations, and the kind of realistic, high-coefficient-of-adversity car chases and action scenes that one expects from a director of John Frankenheimer's skills.

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Reviewed by: davybozal24-7
Posted on May 19, 2006 6:15 PM

In a world where loyalty is earned and betrayal is a way of life , a new and deadlier terrorist threat has emerged - the freelance killer !
Starring Robert De Niro , Jean Reno , Natascha McElhone , Stellan
Skarsgard , Sean Bean and Jonathan Pryce , written by J.D.Zeik and
Richard Weisz and directed by John Frankenheimer , the master of intelligent thrillers , Ronin is a gritty , international film packed with high - octane action . 5 operatives known as ' Ronin ' , are assembled in Paris by a mysterious client for a dangerous mission : steal a top - secret briefcase . Double - cross and betrayal
ultimately leads to confrontational climax .

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Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War--much like a masterless samurai, aka "ronin". With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro's lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job--going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable--there's an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team's business--but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centrepiece of the movie is an honest-to-God car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon) but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Roninis almost Frankenheimer's self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film.There isn't anything here he hasn't done before but it's sure great to see it all again. --Tom Keogh

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1998
Release Date:	October 11, 2004
Runtime:	120 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	10001217
Keywords:	Special, Action, General, Edition, Adventure, Ronin
Genre:	Action/Adventure