Detailed item info | Description | 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.
| | Credits | | Producer: | Frank Mancuso Jr. | | Score Composer: | Elia Cmiral |
| | Editorial reviews | "...RONIN represents an exhilarating return to form for Frankenheimer....The real deal in action fireworks..."
Rolling Stone - p.133-4 - Peter Travers (10/15/1998)
"...Bracing sequences....A welcome throwback....[De Niro] makes most recent action-movie figures look like callow jocks..." -- Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly - p.70 - Michael Sauter (03/05/1999)
"...This throwback to director John Frankenheimer's vintage international thrillers has an attractively old-fashioned feel..."
USA Today - p.6E - Mike Clark (10/23/1998)
"...An extraordinary cast of actors, all on the same formidable wavelength, match wits most impressively....Mr. De Niro shows off a brooding, hard-guy panache with its own brand of international appeal..."
New York Times - p.E15 - Janet Maslin (09/25/1998)
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