The Gunman

First Liam Neeson, then Pierce Brosnan, now... Sean Penn?

I've never really been a huge follower of Sean Penn. He's done a lot of award winning movies that honestly I have just missed. However, I do know the man by his reputation. While I haven't actually seen a lot of his movies, I do know that he is known as an Academy Award winning actor and sometimes that's enough to get you interested in a movie starring him called the Gunman.

The Gunman stars Sean Penn as Jim Terrier, a former special forces soldier who is now a mercenary with a shady past.

He's trying to move past what he's done in the past but some men come and try and kill him and he thinks it probably has something to do with his past.

The majority of the movie is Terrier going off and figuring out who is trying to kill him and... to be honest that's pretty much it. And this really brings up probably the biggest plot hole in the movie.

I mean I understand the whole not wanting to be sought after and not running his entire life, but in a way, that's kind of what he was doing. Besides the fact that he doesn't want people going after him, there's no reason Terrier couldn't just use those special forces skills to just disappear. He really doesn't have any interest in uncovering this mystery besides the fact that if he doesn't he's just being hunted. Which don't get me wrong is a motivation, its just not a very strong one.

Like Terrier has an old girlfriend from the past (played by Jasmine Trinca) who eventually finds herself in the crossfire of this conspiracy. Now obviously Terrier has a vested interest in that but he doesn't know that she's in danger until half way through the movie. He could have easily just run away and not dealt with this thing, and usually that wouldn't be a plot hole that would matter that much, but when these characters aren't written that well and the story isn't that well put together, it really makes you wonder why he's putting this much effort into this mystery.

Furthermore, Terrier is diagnosed with some kind of brain injury... or something like that. It really doesn't become an issue until the writing says that it does. And again, it makes you wonder why he's doing this.

I mean he has a moment where he tells Ray Winstone that he has to do this, and I'm just asking, WHY?!?

But all that aside, it suppose I should talk about Sean Penn. The guy is a good actor. Even in a movie with holes like swiss cheese, he still is able to give a good performance. And the man is in shape. Like my god, he puts me to shame how in shape he is. While a part of me looks at him and doesn't exactly see the same draw in his appearance as Liam Neeson has in his action franchise revival, I can't deny that Sean Penn looks like a badass in this movie, even it is more of a crusty strung out one.

Javier Bardem is in this movie... barely. Idris Elba is in this movie... barely. And that was another weird thing about this movie. Put aside the odd plot, this movie has a lot of good talent in it. But they're just underutilized. Ray Winstone is a good actor, as well as Mark Rylance who I just watched in Bridge of Spies. The issue becomes that this movie decided to focus more on Sean Penn and his romance with this former girlfriend.

Javier Bardem is probably the best example of that. He's suppose to be this badass former Mercenary, like Terrier, but instead he's got this weird connection to Terrier's ex-girlfriend and while that could have been used to make him either a great bad guy or at least an obstacle, he's just kind of this pansy who is a drunk asshole.

Just incredibly underutilized and it really makes the plot holes very apparent and the story just boring.

And that's another thing about this movie. There are a lot of people who would say that this movie is boring. I would disagree with that because of the action that is delivered with the promise I got from hearing that this movie was directed by the guy who directed the first Taken movie.

There is a lot of good action in this movie but unfortunately its bookended by the crappy romance (I wasn't really impressed with Jasmine Trinca btw) and the crappy writing.

And the funny part, I was ready to say that this was a mediocre action flick starring an aging actor who wants to get a few more action flicks out before he gets too old. It would have been a similar verdict as I gave to November Man. Its pretty mediocre but not great. But unfortunately at a certain point, I think the movie just realized that it wasn't that great and just gave a "bull" ending. (If you've watched the ending, you know what that means.

So while I would have loved to write this off as just a simple action flick worth checking out if you want an easy action flick, I honestly can't say I would recommend this film. Its got some good action, Sean Penn is definitely into it, but there are just a few too many parts that take away from what was good about this movie.

Those are my thoughts on The Gunman, what do you think? Comment and Discuss below. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter at cmhaugen24. You can also send me your requests for future reviews I should review. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews, and sometimes even live tweets from films I'm watching.

I'll leave you with this. I'm not gonna lie, this is a difficult movie to have a video attached to because its really not a great movie, and none of the actors have really done anything incredible or hilarious worth putting a video that connects... so here's a video of a skateboarding dog. Enjoy!