A programmer that I wanted to like more than I did.
What Works: Sean Penn may be the exact right actor (at the exact right time) to play an action hero. He’s world-weary but intense, briskly intelligent but believably physical, and his “just doing this for the paycheck” detachment actually fits the role really well. Even if this is phoning it in for him, it nearly saves the movie and it’s a reminder of why people thought quality Oscar-winning actors (like DeNiro, Denzel, and Neeson) worked so well as action stars in the first place. And even though the plot is serviceable at best, I did want to know more about these shady people and what they’re up to in Congo. Plus, I liked that it isn’t an entirely unrealistic plot for a quasi-spy thriller.
What Doesn’t: It never pulls you in like it should, and there are a lot of interesting things that go nowhere. For one, Penn’s character has a form of severe headaches and slight-dementia resulting from war zone stress, but the movie brings it up early on only to forget it entirely except for another scene late in the game. It would have been interesting to see an intelligent action hero deal with a brain that is failing him or a body dealing with aging.
Then there’s Idris Elba who features prominently in the trailers but is actually only in the movie for two scenes. Then there’s the mess that is Javier Bardem’s character and performance that is what the dark side of phoning it in looks like. And the film feels longer than it really is.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The commercial and critical failure of “The Gunman” will probably make Hollywood give up on Penn the action star, but they really shouldn’t because it’s a gambit that almost saves an otherwise skippable movie.