After the murder of the minister of mines on Congo, Terrie, a smart and courageous former soldier, who shot him to death and hides from the police, many years later, he returns, the thing that challenges him, as he finds himself trapped.
A dull, generic retread, made far worse by Penn's self-seriousness as an actor, by the banal political pieties he's grafted on as producer and co-writer, and by the presence of a pitifully retrograde female lead role.
That aid work and violence are often two sides of the same coin is an all too familiar scenario, but in The Gunman there's little distinction between the pair.
The actors are good and the action is thrilling. And if the film isn't quite as seriously political as I'm guessing Penn told himself it was, it's definitely an offbeat change of pace for us.
The Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
July 13, 2016
Relentlessly, loudly violent, the well-made Gunman is oddly compelling even when it's stupid (often).
I doubt The Gunman will do much to advance Penn's foray into action-hero bankability, and that's probably a good thing. He's too fine an actor to be mired in nonstop shootouts while flashing his pecs and looking scowly.
The Gunman degenerates into dreary setups for guns and gore. Penn merits more. So do we.
New Zealand Herald
April 27, 2016
It's directed by Pierre Morel, who started the geri-action genre with Liam Neeson in Taken. This one's both more complex and stupider and barely exciting, even when it's hailing bullets.
