SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Disappointment for a huge fan!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

With his permanent dope-faced-career-alcoholic appearance, *compris* that greasy forelock that he loves so much, Penn is a fairly good fit for the lead in this spare-time filler, struggling valiantly along with the audience to keep our eyes open. A contrived and unbelievable plot has some attention-grabbing action but nothing of narrative interest happens, we don't care about his survival - and there is nothing to write home about. Watchable, but so unremarkable that I had to refer to Wikipedia to remind me what it was about. I suspect that I was distracted by something mundane soon after watching it.

.:Not a native English speaker:. After having seen the Movie for the first time after years of ignoring it, i finally gave in and bought myself the Film as Blu Ray, as for the shallow reason of the Cover and mention of Congo. When i first heard of the Movie it was said to be a possible Franchise starter and Sean Penn's take on the Old man taking back whats his, Taken/96 Hours formula. Boy was i on a ride of awkward disappointment of not having any expectations at all. When i bought the film it took about two months until i popped in the Disc and take on a ride where i never would have thought to speak this out loud, on what was an inconsistent near fatal mess with some rare great moments. Before i get to what was for me the personal, but undercooked highlight, i am going to talk about what on paper (depends on how you stand on Penn's political views, i guess) seems like a sure Win. The Cast surely is great, you have 6 great Actors forming the main protagonists consisting of Sean Penn, who has surely some great scenes and moments, Javier Bardem who again plays a great role as some kind of an ex best friend and colleague, Jasmine Trinca, who also plays her role really good and brings some interesting moments (even if there are few), Ray Winstone who, well he is Ray Winstone and has some fun dialogue to, even if his role is a bit of a cliche, Idris Elba which has some good acting but rather forgetable scenes (to be exact, a day passed since i saw the Movie and i cant remember any of his scenes), & Mark Rylance, who might be a great actor but in this Movie he has an awkward way of taling in a calm and rather quiet voice which makes especially later on an essential scene really awkward (Confrontation scene between him and Penn's character). The Film has some great Cinematography and beautiful colors from start to finish, especially the scenes that play in Spain and Congo. There are some cool Action scenes but some of them feel forced taked on the film, as for the reason of their context being rather, lets just say bizzare. Now to what where the two personal highlights that also show the two weakest links in the Film. The first is that the Film deals with the Political climate and corruption of the Congo, which sadly is of rare bread in our World, especially in Movies/TV Shows/Video Games. The film doesn't delve far enough into that field in my gusto, which makes the whole point or glue that holds the plot together more or less shallow. The second highlight and shortcoming is The Love Story, Love triangle between Penn, Bardem and Trinca, this is exacly the part where i thought and told a friend of that Film something like this "I never ever would have thought that i would see a Movie where the Love Story is far more interesting than the Action parts of this Action Thriller flick". I would watch in a heartbeat if there would be some form of reinterpretation of this Film with an emphasis on the Love part (im sure there already exists this Movie in some capacity), the personal surprise for me is that normally i do not like romantic Movies (with rare exceptions), but here it presented itself with best, most dramatic and engaging story of this lost opportunity. It deals with grief, broken promises, broken friendship, redemption, loss, giving up, anger and more. I guarantee you that most of you will agree with me. To be fair, one of the Action scenes that is the best and most inventive i have seen in a long time was after a tragedy that occurs after a dramatic firefight of emotions, which results into an actual firefight, to spoil as little as possible, it is a scene involving a shower, a Burning house and how to escape it the best way while being hunted by mercenary's. So long story short, half arsed mess with some exceptional parts that get drown by its weight

Pretty hard to fathom why this film got such a bad rap in the media while too many cheesy formulaic crowdpleasers from the Hollywood hit factory get 4 and 5 stars from well reputed outlets. This is a smart, superbly cast and extremely well shot international thriller - the sort that rarely gets made these days - and why such an intelligent production that actually aims to be credible and somewhat educative scores so much lower with critics than the endless parade of Bonds and Furious 7's with their ridiculous jumping cars and chewed up one liners, I have no idea. For once the story and script are actually believable, a rarity in modern action cinema, and Penn and Bardem give great performances that are perfectly matched by beautiful dynamic cinematography of a fair few exotic locations.I'm not easy to please with thrillers and action movies but found this one utterly enjoyable.

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. **