The Gunman 2015

Wesley Morris, Grantland: I object to The Gunman because it's unconvincing and incoherent. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Watching Penn pump iron and denounce capitalism for two hours would be roughly as illuminating as this monotonous Euro-thriller. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Unfortunately, nobody ever won an Oscar for washboard abs. And nobody is going to win five seconds of admiration for 115 minutes of tedium in The Gunman. Read more

Guy Lodge, Variety: Sadly, Penn's veiny, sweat-glazed biceps are the most objectively impressive feature of this rote, humorless thriller, a distinctly unconvincing attempt to refashion the star ... as a middle-aged action hero in the Liam Neeson mold. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: The Gunman is too disorganized and sloppy to make sense as political commentary or to work on the most basic level as a globe-trotting chase thriller. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "The Gunman" is a predictable slog through action-movie tropes, and Penn's intensity isn't a good fit. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: If the film's intent is to condition the audience into a distaste for violence through boredom, it succeeds. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: I can imagine Sean Penn agreeing to star in this Taken knockoff on the condition that it educate moviegoers about humanitarian crises in Africa; it does, but the film feels misshapen as a result. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's a tasty cast, but the script does not do its job in crucial areas, letting the audience get way, way out ahead of the reveals. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: 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. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: The kind of film that can't be bothered to do any more with its Spanish setting than have a showdown at a bullfight. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: OK, we've seen the biceps and the abs. Very nice. Now, back to the brain. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter: Ultimately this feels like a vanity project designed to do for Penn's bankability, Africa, Spain and mercenaries what the Taken franchise did for Liam Neeson, Paris and Albanian gangsters. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Part of the contract that movies of this sort forge with moviegoers is that the reasons for all the running and gunning won't get in the way of the action. "The Gunman" doesn't play by those rules. Read more

Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News: It devolves into a mess of worn plot lines. If Morel wanted to give Penn's career new life as a world-weary action hero, he missed his target. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Penn remains a furiously committed method actor, even in a paycheck role such as this one. But he's not enough to prevent the film from becoming the same-old. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A lightweight thriller posing as a heavy political drama, or vice-versa. Not thoughtful and no fun. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: 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. Read more

Andrew Lapin, NPR: A dum-dum action picture that briefly pretends to be about world aid before returning to muscular, middle-aged men beating the snot out of each other. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There's a grubby, redemptive quality that makes this tough-minded flick feel like the son of "Serpico" and "Salvador." Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Mr. Penn, aiming for weary, battered intensity, settles into a zone somewhere between fatigue and indigestion. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Obviousness prevails. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Penn is dour and not the least bit heroic in this movie. He survives the action sequences but neither they nor his participation in them gets the blood pumping. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: Rarely, though, have two Academy Award-winning actors been so stunningly off the mark in the same movie. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The Gunman degenerates into dreary setups for guns and gore. Penn merits more. So do we. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I've pretty much always enjoyed watching Penn in everything, not despite of his hambone tendency to milk every moment of every shot but because of it. This stupid movie is no exception ... Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Yes, there are plot holes aplenty, but the action is tautly staged by Morel and that makes "The Gunman" a satisfactory time-passer. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It succeeds, partly because the moral climate it presents seems so confused, but mainly because of Penn's particular aura of irascible integrity. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Penn and his fellow actors are fine at conversation, but there are more dialogue-driven subplots here than a movie full of bullets and land mines requires. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A well-executed thriller that leaves us stirred but not shaken. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: 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. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Like a queasy blend of Still Alice and The Bourne Identity. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Whatever else we might think of Sean Penn's bid for an active middle age via The Gunman, we can't doubt his enthusiasm. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: What begins and ends as an exploration of Western exploitation of the Congo mostly follows the standard track of the retired hit-man who realizes that he hasn't quite yet eluded the sins of the past. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Too often feels like just another slice of brainless Eurotrash, packed with saw-it-coming plot twists, half-hearted car chases and an angsty hero with zero charisma. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: A plot that makes no sense, characters that are barely there, and a denouement that is an insult to everybody's intelligence, all combine to make Penn's action-man debut fire blanks. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The only redeeming feature about The Gunman is its exotic locations. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Penn's need to be seen as a guy of integrity is left naked in The Gunman, but at least he's having some fun with the action-movie trappings, and with taking his shirt off. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "The Gunman" may start as a genre exercise of promising purpose, but it winds up being just a lot of bull. Read more