The Gunman

First Hit:  This film tries to be interesting and fails.

Using the politics of forced mining in the Congo as a backdrop, what the story is about is how a man slowly comes to grips with his killing past. What is unfortunate is that using this and his redemptive actions of drilling for clean water to make Terrier (Sean Penn) someone we care about failed.

I did not care one iota about Terrier’s self-redemption. Walking into the theater I expected to sit through a bunch of scenes of people shooting (and missing) at each other but for it to be so poorly done was disappointing. True to Penn’s own publicly pushed political stance – there are scenes where he’s the good guy, however, he’ll do anything to keep himself and his girlfriend Annie (Jasmine Trinca) alive and shooting people is what he resorts to doing. He continues to state that he's got no choice.

Javier Bardem, as Terrier's co-worker Felix, was a poorly created and acted character. He’s required to be extremely jealous and a drunk, and neither of these were done well. At least 3 times during the film, I was sat there thinking, I just wanted this movie to be over.

The best part of Penn’s performance was that he was in great physical shape but to have him smoking in so many scenes is downright stupid. His character didn’t need it. Trinca was OK and although she exemplified being a good person in love with someone who has a history of killing people for money, she rose above the stupidity of this film and delivered what she could. Bardem was a wasted talent in this role. Ray Winstone as Stanley, Terrier’s only true friend, was strong in his supporting role. He was the only bright light in this film. Don MacPherson wrote this mess and Pierre Morel did his best to shoot this film in an interesting way.

Overall:  Poor story, poor acting, and lousy characters make for a waste of time.

44 Inch Chest

First Hit: It started off well but faded as the film moved along then ended with a thud.

This strong cast of Ray Winstone (playing Colin Diamond), John Hurt (playing old man peanut), Tom Wilkinson (playing Archie), Ian McShane (playing Meredith), Stephen Dillane (playing Mal), and Dave Legeno (playing Brighton Billy), are close friends gathering together to support one of their own.

Colin has come home to his wife Liz (played by Joanne Whalley) who proceeds to tell him that she has met another man and doesn’t love him any longer. He pleads with her to understand how could this be the case after 21 years and that she is everything to him.

She doesn't relent and in his anger he tries to strangle her. To escape she runs through a sliding glass door window. He contacts Archie, who contacts the others in the group who gather together to help him. This assistance consists of the group kidnapping this man from his job as a waiter in a restaurant and depositing him in a wardrobe cabinet in a deserted building.

Gathered together, they sit Colin in front of the wardrobe expecting him to take his revenge out on this young man. Most of the film centers around how they encourage him with their rants and their own sick ways of viewing the situation. Each person has a different focus, but they are in agreement that Colin must extract his revenge.

However, Colin doesn't know what to do he is so hurt. As brisk as the dialog is at the beginning, it loses steam and the film eventually falls flat.

Winstone has been better (See him in Edge of Darkness). Hurt is ranting and shows little else in and of his character. Wilkinson is the only one who seems to have some character development that is meaningful. The writers, Louis Mellis and David Scinto, had an interesting idea but seem to have gotten lost in creating intense and intense dialogue which kept the film from moving along.

Overall: Where "Glengarry Glen Ross", was filled with intense and competitive dialogue which moved the film along, this film is filled with intense dialogue and which makes the film fizzle out.

Edge of Darkness

First Hit: This was a surprisingly good film.

Granted I went into the film thinking this film would be an updated cross between Lethal Weapon and Payback but it was more than this.

Mel Gibson plays Thomas Craven a detective in the Boston Police department who becomes a man with nothing to lose in finding out who and why his daughter Emma (played by Bojana Novakovic) was savagely killed by a shotgun blast when they were walking out the front door of his house.

His daughter had unexpectedly returned home for a visit and it is clear that she is troubled. She is also very sick. In a bout of coughing and spitting up they decide to go to the doctor. As they head out the front door she is blasted by an assassin.

Initially, everyone on the police force thinks that Thomas was the target. However, Thomas thinks different and starts out to find out who killed his daughter and why.

The story heads into intrigue with government agencies, a US Senator, a large private corporation where his daughter worked, a private security company, and an anti-nuclear armament activist group. For an action film, this film is well crafted.

The story line is strong with not a lot of obvious holes, the dialogue is good and the overall direction and scenes are, at times, shockingly strong.

Gibson is very strong and believable as a father with nothing to lose as he makes in-roads towards finding his daughter’s killers. Ray Winstone is great as a mediator of sorts; he’s the guy you call if you don’t want someone to track a story from A to B. The script is not spectacular but it is solid and the direction is very good as this film keeps the audience’s attention and anticipatory.

Overall: This is a very entertaining and well done film.