Pierre Morel is a man of many talents. Consistently directing good movies is not one of them. The man behind Taken, one of the more entertaining action movies in the last decade, is back, relying on that clout to convince people that The Gunman is anything more than a generic thriller.

Sadly, that's exactly what the movie is.

Sean Penn stars as an assassin who, years after retiring following a pivotal assassination, finds himself the target of a plot to silence him. People talk, some people die, and blah blah blah it doesn't really matter.

The Gunman is about as generic as they come, its only saving grace being the presence of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, who is clearly looking for a Liam Neeson resurgence. While Penn is fine, he doesn't exactly elevate the material, nor does co-star and fellow Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, who delivers one of his most forgettable roles in ages.

Nothing about the plot is particularly interesting--an assassin becoming the target is a story that has been done to death--and its execution is equally bland. Morel is a decent action director and he delivers some okay action sequences, but none that stand out. A lack of hook when it comes to story combined to a lack of hook when it comes to action scenes means there isn't a whole lot to draw you in.

Morel is a director capable of making a good movie, but he's done little in the years following Taken to prove it. The Gunman is just more of the same, a forgettable and sort-of-boring action-thriller that deserves a bullet to the head.

Review by Erik Samdahl.