Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

DubyaHan The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

cinemajesty Always endangered to break under its over-complicated story-line, progressing from scene to scene without forgetting to grip on twisted suspense, "The Gunman" (2015) directed by "96 hours" (2008) director Pierre Morel surprisingly holds up under pressure with leading actor Sean Penn, carrying a heavy load in shape of a backpack from Central Africa to several locations in Europe in order to encounter one by one the demons of his past and eliminating any hostiles under hammering sound design and well-staffed properties of action combined with believable close to humanized relationships with supporting parts stretching from Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance as corrupted nemesis in a globalized world business of natural resources and actress Jasmine Trinca as the protagonist's love interest, who got the chemistry balanced enough to elevate this action thriller over the usual lone wolf clear-my-name revenge story.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Samuel-Shovel It seems odd that such a talented actor as Sean Penn would require an action star rebranding but I guess that this was that attempt. And oh boy did it fail.This movie is a snoozefest. It contains a convoluted plot, poor dialogue, and (mostly) bland action scenes. This movie's 1 hour & 55 minutes and you painfully feel every second of them. It's shot fine and it has one or two good action scenes but none of that can make up for how forgettable this movie is. I found it on Netflix and saw it starred Penn, Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, and Mark Rylance and figured that this movie would at least be decent. Not even these great actors can help this film.About a forgettable of an action movie as I can think of. Not a recommend.

Andrew Gold The Gunman is the epitome of wasting talent. It has Sean Penn in a Liam Neeson-type veteran badass role with Javier Bardem and Idris Elba as supporting characters, which sounds great. The problem is the script is an absolute disaster, and the movie gets worse and worse as it goes on. It's just so boring. The story is Sean Penn's character and some other guys get together for a contract killing or something like that, then years later people from the job start getting killed off and Penn has to figure out what's going on. First of all, there's only a handful of shootouts in this movie. You'd think there'd be more of a focus on guns because of the title, but it really is just another generic action movie with a stupid love triangle and horrible dialogue. And even when there is an action sequence it's just like, whatever, nothing I haven't seen before. Why in the world Idris Elba is in this movie is beyond me. He doesn't show up for over an hour into the thing and has maybe five minutes of total screen time. Javier Bardem is completely wasted coming off of a magnetic performance in Skyfall. And Sean Penn is really ripped. That's probably the biggest takeaway you'll get from this movie.The Gunman is complete garbage and no one should ever be subjected to watching this. It gets a 3 for potential and even that's being generous.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Professional assassin Terrier (Sean Penn) was on a mission in Congo many years ago, where a hit on an important minister went wrong and forced him into hiding. Years later, after returning to Africa, an attempt on his life is made, and he is determined to find out why. After tracking down his old associate Cox (Mark Rylance) in London, he learns that all the other members involved in that assassination have been getting hit as well, and after some help from old pal Stanley (Ray Winstone), he heads to Barcelona, reunites with old flame Annie (Jasmine Trinca) and attempts to get to the bottom of a very complicated web of deception.After years of accused ageism in Hollywood, the stars with a few more miles on their clock are seemingly getting lead roles once again, and the trend seems to be set on turning them into action heroes. There was Liam Neeson in the Taken movies, and Kevin Costner in 3 Days to Kill, and now Sean Penn is the latest 50+ star to have a stab with this thriller that appears a lot more considered than it is. That older actors are being put in these roles is an indication that there aren't enough younger, up and coming stars with the meat on their bones to do these roles, but also that this kind of material matches the sell by date of the older actors.It starts with what seems a pretty intricate set up, but before long it's become clear it's just a fairly standard, join the dots action thriller, that follows all the clichés to a tee and is fairly predictable to boot. An all star cast, including Javier Bardem and Idris Elba, are scattered all over the place in roles that pretty much serve to extend the clichés (the old pal, the love interest, the one who'll stab him in the back.) They all play the parts well, and there is a more mature feel to match the more mature stars, but that's as high as the recommendations go.Ultimately, a star with a bit more Hollywood firepower is getting to have a second coming with the type of thing Steven Seagal makes a living from. **