Ronin (1998) - Movie Review

There is little to be said about action thrillers these days: "The bad guy dies, the hero walks out untarnished, but only after a series of unbelievable yet stupendous action sequences." This holds true in Ronin no less than any other movie, it just presents itself in a different matter. To most easily describe this movie, the movie Mission: Impossible is the best example. Mission: Impossible was an action movie with a plot, a strange, twisted plot in that, where all common sense was lost and by the end, nothing was what it had been in the beginning. Enter Ronin.

Spiritual yet suspenseful music starts off the movie, only following a dull title screen and an explanation of the title. What is expected is an introductory shoot-out but instead, nothing happens. This same formula repeats for at least half the movie until the day the big ambush comes, which, by any means, is a big ambush. Nevertheless, it comes after nearly an hour of boring foreplay and character introductions that gives barely any insight on the characters. Relationships between the good guys and bad guys are sudden and meaningless; they obviously happened long before the beginning of the movie.

Ronin, including the big ambush scene and one other, has its share of lengthy car chases. In fact, car chases take up approximately two thirds of the action and, while quite spectacular and well thought out, becomes rather repetitive. Luckily, they aren't too close together and the audience is given another duration of meaningless scenes, including that where Sam helps Vincent take a bullet from his own body.

Ronin's action sequences were very fun to watch but were also shrouded by a long and tedious introductory section and small build-up scenes. The climax is very exciting, to put it bluntly, but the way the case transfers from one bad guy to another to another seemed like the screenwriters just threw in a bunch of twists to make it sound as though their script was more complicated than it really was. In actuality, Ronin was just another mindless action movie, only duller. It was also deceiving; the plot was just like any other but was structured in such a way that most would think it was complex. Ronin is not a bad movie but it's not something that excels in any genre, suspense, action, or otherwise.

This movie is lonely because people have neglected it and not written kind things about it. Please help this movie feel better about itself and write a comment or review now.

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