Starring: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean Directed By: John Frankenheimer Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC Label: MGM (Video & DVD) Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: February 23, 1999 Running Time: 121 minutes Theatrical Release Date: September 25, 1998
Product Description: Film about a group of former intelligence agents of various nationalities who are contracted to carry out a dangerous mission.System Requirements:Starring: Jean Reno et al. Director: John Frankenheimer Edition Details: Region 1 encoding (for use in US and Canada only) Color Widescreen Dolby Closed-captioned Commentary by director John Frankenheimer Never-before-seen alternate ending 8 page booklet featuring insights into the making of the film Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats Number of discs: 1 Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616743923 Manufacturer No: 907439
Amazon.com essential video: Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War--much like a masterless samurai, a.k.a. "ronin." With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro's lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone, and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job--going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable--there's an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team's business--but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centerpiece of the movie is an honest-to-God car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon), but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Ronin is almost Frankenheimer's self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film. There isn't anything here he hasn't done before, but it's sure great to see it all again. --Tom Keogh
yawnin. If you love nonstop car chases through the streets of europe, shootouts, and backstabbing this is your movie. There's not much depth here, very little plot. Very long, and actually quite boring. You wait for the payoff and never get it. Watch Italian Job instead.
You trying to save your own skin? ... Yeah, it covers my body ...
"Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you." "Who taught you?" "I don't remember. That's the second thing they teach you."
Ronin is undoubtedly John Frankenheimer's final masterpiece. Here is a film that stands out from the majority of the other large-scale productions that surrounded it in its day. Looking back on it now, a decade has passed since I saw this at the theatre although it sure doesn't feel like it at all. 1998 was a high-water mark year for film, unfortunately this film wasn't recognized at all during its release because of the heavy competition. But there was an initial buzz generated about the level of skill concerning the car chase scenes and was another vehicle for the much loved Jean Reno.
Ronin has an old world, classic film feel to it. It hits you from the first moments with the headshakingly unnecessary on-screen text of the story of the 47 Ronin, to the slowly fading in of the music, the gothic titles, the low lit café and sullen look on Robert DeNiro's face that seems to be locked in place. Leading the viewer to believe that the protagonist Sam, is sizing up the French Café when the films begins so he can either gun everyone down, or select a target, is the first of a thousand twists to the plot that get unwound, one by one, as the film progresses. David Mamet, who ghost wrote the screenplay and probably thought that it would be a clever idea to go left - each and every time you thought he was about to go right. A lot of negative things can be said about Ronin, but being predictable is not one of them.
The dialogue and the interplay between DeNiro and Reno is absolutely believable and the best part the film. Cigarette smoke seems to rise into the air from almost every surface, unshaved faces are peering out from every corner and middle-aged, out-of-work Intelligence Operatives chew on the meager remains of base and amateur criminal activity. DeNiro sleeps in his clothes, Jean Reno chain smokes and looks like he hasn't had a sober day in a lustrum. Ambushing Sean Bean (a guy with probably the most annoying name ever, playing one of the most annoying characters ever) with a cup of coffee is one of my favourite scenes.
"What's the colour of the boathouse at Hereford?"
The downfall of Ronin is the downfall that is seen in other movies. The same is attempted in Untamed Heart and also fails just as badly. When any film introduces important characters way-too late in the game, works out the final resolution at a sports event, or employ thuggish looking Russians wearing matching tracksuits and gold chains is usually just too much. Frankenheimer jumped the shark tank here when he introduced the figure-skating angle. Maybe they thought: "Hey, this is cool. It's like the terror at the Munich Games in 1972." The problem with that is, is that most people don't remember "the terror", or they just don't remember the situation at all, so the suspense is completely lost and the scene is too jarring and comes across as out of place. For this portion of the film, it becomes the perfect candidate for a fan edit at faneditdotcom and a deletion of the last twenty-five minutes.
As a short aside that might only be important to die hard U2 fans, such as myself, on the album Pop, which came out the year previous, track eight is a song titled "Miami". This song, according to Bono, was written while he was hanging around on set of Ronin. The lyric "What's he got inside the case?" is a direct reference to this film and not Pulp Fiction as previously suggested in a few other reviews of the album on Amazon. Just a piece of trivia, that's all.
Below I've made a short list of some of the films that came out in 1998. 98 was definitely a good year in cinema, and for the movies that I listed, I probably could've listed several more.
The Big Lebowski Dark City Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas There's Something About Mary Saving Private Ryan John Carpenter's Vampires Waking Ned Devine Shakespeare in Love Rushmore
"You think you can stitch me up on your own? If you don't mind, I'm gonna pass out."
Thrilling from start to finish Ronin is not your typical CIA spy movie ala James Bond, it's actually realistic. Maybe that's what hurt this movie with some reviewers and at the box office. What we get with Ronin is a serious spy/action movie of that genre that brings together a ragtag group of mercenaries who are hired to retrieve a briefcase at any cost. What's inside the briefcase? Well, we never know. But who cares, really? It's not about that really. It's about the suspense, espionage, and double-crossing this movie brings to life in the streets of France. This is probably how hired contracts are actually drawn up and executed in the real world. When a superpower wants a piece of information, this is how they go about getting it. But who can you trust? Absolutely no one.
What steals the show in this movie more than the overall plot, is by far the car chase scenes on the streets of France. I believe Ronin to have the best car chase scene to date. I haven't seen one to come close yet. Obviously the streets have been closed off and the cars are driven by stunt drivers, but you will be at the edge of your seat at a car chase that comes pretty close to 10 minutes in length. How these guys managed to pull it off is amazing. Kudos to those stuntmen. Hair-pinning turns at disastrous speeds absolutely draw you into the action. While some of the acting may lack just that, you have to remember that real-life mercs are probably just like that. Stoic, secret, and plain. That's how they get the job done. Overall an excellent thriller of a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat. De Niro is top notch as well. He can sell any role. 4 stars
Warriors without a Master.... John Frankenheimer's 1999 "Ronin" could easily have been another forgetable action movie. Instead, Frankenheimer manages to invest the plot with real tension and the characters with significant depth. The result, a loose riff on a Japanese legend about 47 masterless samurai, is an atmospheric thriller.
Robert DeNiro stars as a ostensibly out-of-work covert operative who answers a job interview in Nice, France, for an unidentified project on behalf of an unnamed sponsor. The mission, as described by the nominal leader (played with silky Irish menance by Natscha McElhone), is to steal a suitcase containing a sensitive cargo.
DeNiro and his fellow operatives, notably Sean Bean as an alleged former SAS member, Jean Reno as a former French operative, and Stellan Skarsgard as a former KGB computer expert, put together and execute an ambush, only to lose the suitcase to another covert operation. The stage is set for a series of thrilling car chases, betrayals, and a final confrontation with the real leader of the theft operation. The loyalties of the various operatives are suspect right up to the finish.
The movie was filmed on location in and around Nice and Paris. The dialogue is usually first-rate. The interaction between DeNiro and his ally of the moment Reno is priceless, as two professionals do their job while trying to ferret out the real alligences of the other. This movie is highly recommended to fans of Robert DeNiro and of the spy genre.
Great Action with a Minimal Plot John Frankenheimer's film regarding a team of rogue agents hired to obtain a mysterious suitcase for their obscure employers. The plot is rudimentary with a loose story and undeveloped characters but presents some good action sequences with exciting car chases.
Frankenheimer tries to present the theme of the rogue agent by obscuring the purpose of the mission and the true motivation of the characters involved. Unfortunutely, this leaves the film with a minimal plot where no one knows much about the background of the characters or the real purpose of their mission. What is in the box? Who are all of the characters really working for? What are their backgrounds and real specialties? Nobody knows. Nice try but this attempt at presenting a plot of mystery seems to misfire leaving simply no real plot at all to cling to. Good car chases but somewhat your typical Hollywood exagerrations with infinite obstacles avoided at unbelievable speeds and, of course, your gratuitous scene showing the spontaneous combustion of car wrecks. The gun fights are completely unbelievable and make you wonder where these agents were trained to be so brazen in accomplishing their mission.
In short, the film has some good action sequences but leaves much to be desired in terms of plot and character development making it just another average action/suspense thriller.
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