Despite a strong ensemble cast lead by a determined, musclebound Sean Penn, The Gunman fails to deliver a cohesive story or the exciting shootouts suggested by its title. Director Pierre Morel, having re-launched Liam Neeson's action career with Taken (2008), aims to establish a similar aging anti-hero in Penn's Jim Terrier. However, the sharp pacing and continuous action of that film have here been replaced by muddled exposition attempting to explain an overwrought assassination double-cross.

When the action does kick off, sporadic as it may be, it leads to a few genuinely intense moments. The hand-to-hand combat is visceral and well-shot, while the brief firefights hint at the solid run-and-gun thriller that a better script might have produced. Indeed the excellent Javier Bardem is wasted in his abbreviated screen time, and Mark Rylance's serpentine villain never feels truly threatening. Throw in an odd romance with Terrier's former love interest and the film just doesn't gel from scene to scene.

The gig is officially up by the time a final, so-so set piece is staged at a Spanish bullfight. With the stakes never made clear and the characters under-developed, any real payoff becomes an unlikelihood. This sort of movie is all the more disappointing when enough talented people are involved that screwing up seems more difficult than succeeding. So much for the first chapter of a franchise, Terrier's story ends here - dead on arrival.

Final Grade: C- | 72/100 | ★½