Ronin (1998)

Written by CinemaSerf on August 28, 2023

It would not be fair to describe a "Ronin" as a rogue; more a mercenary without loyalty to any one particular person or cause. So, Natasha McElhone "Deirdre" hires a few of these to relieve a man of a suitcase that is bound for the Russians. What follows is as internecine a thriller as you will ever see. It's full of scheming and double-scheming with "Sam" (Robert De Niro) and "Vincent" (Jean Reno) never quite sure who is or is not on their team as the suitcase changes hands more times that the wonderfully elegant Katarina Witt changes her skates. Stellan Skarsgård; Sean Bean; Jonathan Pryce and Michael Lonsdale all help to keep them, and us, guessing pretty much right to the end. It does suffer a little from a preponderance of shoot outs that couldn't hit a barn door with a shovel; and the car chases do begin to get wearisome after a while, but over all John Frankenheimer manages to keep the quality of the action to a high enough standard to compensate. The dialogue is a bit basic, as are the characterisations - this has no depth nor underlying political agenda/statements - not the I could discern, anyway - it is just a good old fashioned thriller with a first rate cast who are unchallenged by their tasks - and therefore are perfectly plausible.