10 DAYS OF MAYHEM DAY 7: RONIN (1998)

10 Days of Mayhem continues with day 7's film, a crazy mix of Espionage spy thriller and old school practical action. This film is in my top 5 films of all time and I do mention it quite often on this site. John Frankenheimer's RONIN is my day 7 film, it's cool, it's loud and it's fuel injected. Checkout my mini review after the jump.

A group of mercenaries are put together in France to retrieve a silver case from some dubious gangsters, in charge of the group is a female IRA member called Deirdre. She wants the case for her people and enlist the help of these mercs through a wheel chair bound contact that is never named nor seen. Among the hired guns is Sam, a man with a shady past, was he or is he still CIA? He's a professional, a man who knows this game so well. He's matched by the steely cool of Vincent, a French man who also happens to have a shady past, neither man knows who the other is or what the others does but find themselves becoming friends quickly. Also joining them is Spence, a former SAS soldier as he says, Larry the mechanic and wheelman and Gregor a Russian tech specialist We know nothing about these guys only that they've been hire to snatch this case. After an incident while trying to buy guns, the group discovers that Spence isn't who he says he is and is removed from the group. The action then shifts to Nice, where they execute the snatch only to get double crossed by Gregor. Gregor plans to sell the case to some Russian gangsters. Sam, Vincent and Deirdre track Gregor and confront him in an old ancient ruin during a tourist tour. Gunfire is exchanged, Sam gets hit and Gregor escapes only to run into Deirdre’s boss Seamus. Deirdre and Seamus double cross Sam and Vincent by taking Gregor to get the case. Sam gets stitched up by Vincent's old friend Jean-Pierre and the two head back to track down Seamus and Deirdre. The films ends during an ice show as Gregor is about to sell the case. Who will succeed in taking possession of the case and who will survive?

The script was originally written by J.D Zeik but was extensively re-written by David Mamet who fell out with the studio and asked to have his name removed or pseudonym used instead. The film bares all the trademark cool dialogue that we've come to know from a David Mamet script. His style of writing fast, realistic dialogue, apart from the car chases, helps the film move at a lightning pace and the plot of double crosses and triple crosses is great to watch unravel, another great thing about the Mamet work on the script is the idea that we know fuck all about the characters but we want them to succeed. But enough about the script, this is one of the coolest, grittiest action thrillers since The French Connection and it helps that the director of that film's sequel and films such as Grand Prix ('66), The Manchurian Candidate (The Original), 52 Pick Up ('86) and the Don Johnson actioner Dead Bang ('89), so the man knew how to shoot action and he totally kicks the ass of any car chase film ever made, Ronin features some of the best, practical car stunts ever filmed, they're fast, furious and impeccably staged and it showed that even veteran directors can still show how the kids how to make an action film. There are explosions, hard core gun battles on public streets and watching a Citron and a Merc drive through the tiny back allys of Nice, which was copied in the first Transporter film. The final car chase was quite controversial as it was shot in the same tunnel in which Princess Diana's car crashed and killed her. This is as good if not better than the car chases in Mad Max, Bullitt and The French Connection.

The Cast is fantastic and the film has some great performances especially from Robert De Niro as Sam and Jean Reno as Vincent but there are good performances from all involved including Sean Bean as the jittery, big mouthed Spence. Ronin is in my opinion the last of the proper practical studio action films, for me 90s action didn't get better than this. It's one of my top 5 films of all time and I recommend you check this out ASAP if you've not seen it.  

I'm giving it 10 out of 5 as It's one of my favourite films of ALL TIME!!!