The title for Ronin is almost obscure. Back in medieval Japan, dishonored Samurai were called Ronin. They roamed the countryside as hired swords. Those Ronin are compared to hired guns in the modern age. The Cold War is over and a new breed of spies, agents, operatives and assassins exist. Whether they're ex-CIA, ex-KGB, etc or whatever, they're still deadly and dangerous.
The movie stars Robert de Niro, a very notable actor with a great reputation, as ex-CIA agent Sam. He's one of several ex-military men, the others being: Frenchman Vincent (Jean Reno), ex-KGB Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard), former British special-forces man Spence (Sean Bean) and former intelligence operative Larry (Skipp Sudduth). They've been hired by a young Irish IRA member named Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), to retrieve a mysterious case in France. Apparently, both the IRA and Russian gangsters are after the case. The group isn't sure if they can trust each other, but, after kicking out Spence, who is revealed to be a fraud, they ambush the convey holding the case, but Gregor reveals himself as a traitor and takes the case. Afterwards, Diedre's boss, Seamus (Jonathon Pryce), kills Larry and teams up with Deidre to work to get the case. It ends up being up to good guys Sam and Vincent to work together to get to the case before Gregor can sell it to Russian gangsters or Seamus and Deidre can intercept it and get it for the IRA.
Ronin makes for an easy and entertaining, albeit flawed, action-thriller. It features several well done, exhilarating car-chase scenes throughout the streets of Paris and Nice, usually accompanied or followed by a tense gunfight or shootout. That's what Ronin is—it's an action film at heart. And it makes it better with a well collected cast.
On the other hand, Ronin is far from perfect. It's never really revealed what's in the case (not that it matters), or why everyone's after it, but because later in the movie it completely disappears from the plot. But why does it matter anyway, considering the fact that this is an action movie that can get out of hand at times.
John Frankenheimer directs the action. In the early 60s, he directed the critically acclaimed the Manchurian Candidate. He's made a skillful picture here. Ultimately though, Ronin nevertheless feels nothing more then your usual action thriller machine, but the action scenes elevate the movie to a higher level.
Therefore, I enjoyed Ronin. In reality, it's a veritable action flick boosted by a good cast and a few good-looking action sequences.
*** ½/5
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