Ronin [Blu-ray]
In a world where loyalties are easily abandoned and allegiances can be bought, a new and deadlier terrorist threat has emergedfree agent killers! Featuring “high-octane action” (Gene Shalit, “Today”), a “first-rate cast” (L.A. Daily News) and exhilarating car chases that “are nothing short of sensational” (The New York Times), Ronin is “the real deal in action fireworks” (Rolling Stone) directed by “a master of intelligent thrillers” (Roger Ebert). The Cold War may be over, but a new world order keeps a group of covert mercenaries employed by the highest bidder. These operatives, known as “Ronin,” are assembled in France by a mysterious client for a seemingly routine mission: steal a top-secret briefcase. But the simple task soon proves explosive asother underworld organizations vie for the same prize…and to get the job done, the members of Ronin must do something they’ve never done beforetrust each other!Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War–much like a masterless samurai, a.k.a. “ronin.” With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro’s lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone, and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job–going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable–there’s an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team’s business–but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centerpiece of the movie is an honest-to-God car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon), but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Ronin is almost Frankenheimer’s self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film. There isn’t anything here he hasn’t done before, but it’s sure great to see it all again. –Tom Keogh
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great Action !
Awesome movie! If your looking for a blu ray movie that has everything from top notch acting to non stop action,then this is the movie for you. The blu ray quality is crystal clear unlike some blu ray movies I’ve bought and had to return! The audio separation is fantastic in this movie. Nothing is more frustrating to me than buying a blu ray movie that is not recorded in Dolby HD, DTS HD or uncompressed HD. Isn’t this why so many of us have bought blu ray players? I hate when the movie studios repackage older movies to blu ray and don’t bother to change the audio formate. I don’t know why but it seems like every movie Tom Cruise is in doesn’t have HD audio, from the Mission Imposable trio to the Last Samurai. I feel if your paying for a HD movie, the movie should come with HD sound!! Anyways, you won’t find a better movie for action than Ronin!
1 Stars Blu-ray not worth the purchase!
This is one of my favorite movies. Unfortunately, MGM decided to pull a fast one and release a lobotomized Blu-ray version.
First of all, it uses old-school, low bitrate MPEG-2 encoding (so much for the the “superior” picture quality of Blu-Ray).
Fine, I could have lived with that… except for the fact that, as others have mentioned, the Blu-ray release contains absolutely no special features at all! None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Not even the stuff on the DVD release! WTF!?!?
I suppose MGM will eventually come out with a “Special Edition” Blu-Ray with the missing features, expecting us to also purchase that. No Way!!!
I’m returning this for a refund. I’ve spent quite a bit of money buying stuff off of Amazon over the years, and this is the first time I’m returning anything. It should tell you how ticked off I am about this.
Also, Amazon really needs to segregate the reviews for the Blu-ray release from the DVD reviews. It’s sometimes very difficult to wade through 100s of reviews to find out if the Blu-ray release is worth buying over the DVD release.
5 Stars A Gem
Great story, Great acting and one of the best car chase scens on film. Enough said
5 Stars The best car chase scenes ever put on film
I have seen this movie many times and finally saw a good price on Blue-Ray and AZ so I picked it up. The Blue_Ray quality is very good but does not blow you away. So, I would say If you have a good DVD version, you may not need the Blue-Ray.
Now on to the movie: Every time I see this movie I am amazed at the car scenes. How did they film this on location Paris, Nice without killing anyone (maybe they did and I just don’t know about it)? The direction and how the cameras do not jitter at high speeds are amazing. It never looks like any of this was shot at slow speeds and then had the film sped up.
While, some might say the plot is contrived, I disagree. I thought the plot was very good and engaging. It created interest in all the characters early on and throughout the movie.
But if you like car chase scenes, you need this movie in your collection with Bullitt, 7 ups, Vanishing Point, French Connection, Bourne Indentity. I’m sure I’m missing some, just Google the rest.
4 Stars Ronin Rocks!!!!
This is one of the most underated movies I have ever seen. Not only does it have a phenomenal cast….but the acting and action are awesome. I highly recommend this movie for anyone who enjoys a good suspense or action flick with more than a one line plot summary.
Filed under: Blu Ray Movie Reviews