New York – The Gunman has finally released in theatres and many fail not to compare it, with The Taken. Both the movies were directed by Pierre Morel. Starring and co-directed by Sean Penn, the movie is about an independent American contractor building roads in Congo in 2006. This was supposedly a cover for his actual mission to assassinate the nation’s leader for the purpose of exploiting its natural resources.
Sean Penn plays the role of Jim Terrier in the movie and had been hired by a mining company for the assassination job. He would be later afflicted with a head injury, which fails him to remember anything about the assassination.
The person behind conspiring the assassination (Mr. Bardem) uses the operation as a pretext to steal Annie (played by Jasmine Trinca, an Italian actress) from Terrier. The movie runs for almost 2 hours.
If reviews provided by The Atlantic and National Review are to be believed, then it would be wrong to expect that The Gunman would provide the same cinematic experience as Taken. Earning $226 million worldwide and having a trilogy made on it, The Taken far outclasses Gunman in every aspect of the movie. Pierre Morel adds a certain spice in the action scenes, but is ultimately a “monotonous thriller”. Sean Penn however, seems to “ripped” for a middle aged person.
The movie has strong scenes of violence (hence rated R) and has “many” action scenes as well. However, none of them are good enough to fetch positive reviews by critics. The Guardian calls the movie as a movie with a “muscle-bound star with a flabby script. According to the New York Times, the series of forgetfulness, blurred vision and vertigo induced by Terrier is supposed to add vulnerability to Penn, but actually adds “contrivance” to the plot.
In conclusion, the movie isn’t the best thing to happen to Sean Penn. It’s one of those movies with a ripped actor and a pretty actress with a “flabby” script.