Sean Penn in ‘The Gunman’.
‘The Gunman’
by John Lyons
As legendary director Frank Capra famously once said:
“There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.”
This is probably my favourite quote about filmmaking.
There’s thousands of other quotes, guidelines, and advice that you learn in any film school or by reading cinema-based literature, but what’s the point of adhering to all these guidelines if, at the end of the day, you just make boring films anyway?
It’s unfortunate then that Sean Penn does not have this quote tattooed on his forehead, because, based on his latest film ‘The Gunman’, French director Pierre Morel doesn’t quite seem to grasp the notion that a film should not bore an audience to tears.
In an age where everyone and their dog is making films, it’s relatively easy to find a lot of interesting work from emerging filmmakers on the likes of Youtube and Vimeo.
But sadly, many talented storytellers out there will never truly flourish because, naturally, it’s hard for unproven amateur artists to get financial backing for their proposed work.
And it’s especially hard for them when there’s folks out there who are willing to abandon any shred of dignity and artistic integrity they have in return for a big fat paycheck.
Folks such as the people responsible for ‘The Gunman’.
This generically-titled, balls-to-the-wall action thriller boasts periodic action sequences along with scene after scene of non-stop, heart-pounding exposition.
If you enjoy watching one-dimensional characters constantly explain to you what’s going on, and instead somehow manage to make things even more convoluted in the process, then you’re in for a treat.
Sean Penn stars as Jim Terrier, an ex-hitman suffering from a life-threatening illness who is hunted by the organization he used to work for.
Jim assassinates a political leader in an underprivileged African country for his own personal gain, effectively causing mass rioting and general chaos across the third world nation.
The shrewd filmmakers communicate to us that Jim is the hero by having him hesitate for a moment before he pulls the trigger.
Two time Academy Award winner Sean Penn gives the laziest performance of his career by barely bothering to display any emotion other than his default pensive gaze.
Fellow Academy Award winner Javier Bardem is incomprehensibly over-the-top in a role that only ever demands him to glare at people for inordinate amounts of time and then act like a drunken buffoon.
All the emotional heavy lifting in the film is left to Jim’s love interest (played by Jasmine Trinca), a character who, by the second half of the film, is eventually just riddled down to the most stereotypical damsel-in-distress imaginable.
Every single aspect of ‘The Gunman’ is so lazily executed that it’s downright shameful.
The characters are bland, the story is as equally moronic as it is messy, and worst of all, it commits the cardinal sin of filmmaking – it’s boring as hell.
Without question this is hands down the most boring film I’ve seen in a long, long time.
What enrages me the most about ‘The Gunman’ is that Sean Penn and Javier Bardem are fantastic actors, and Pierre Morel has directed engaging action films in the past, such as ‘District 13’ and ‘Taken’, but they’ve teamed together to craft a film that merely promises to have all the elements of a classic revenge thriller yet doesn’t actually deliver.
‘The Gunman’ is a total con. Save yourself the money and the trouble. Don’t be fooled into buying a ticket like I was.
This cinematic abomination is simply a depressing reminder that some talented people will stoop as low as you want them to if you pay them well enough.
2/10
Follow John Lyons on Twitter: @Fireinthelyons
