The Great American Action Hero is growing old.
I mean this literally, figuratively, metaphorically.
The genre dominated the 80’s with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris and Willis all kicking foreign asses with a machete planted firmly in their hand so they may plant it firmly into someone’s skull. Follow this with some Seagal and Van Damme and then the baton got dropped. Statham and The Rock tried but never grabbed the masses, just the fringe psychos addicted to watching face kicks. The genre got old.
Now look at the landscape of punch’em ups. Liam Neeson is America’s biggest action star. And he’s 62. Stallone won’t go away but only makes money when he gathers 17 other washed up action “stars” and makes an Expendables movie. Schwarzenegger is eating his own tail with Terminator and Conan movies on the horizon. Bruce Willis still kicks out Die Hard flicks hoping he’ll one day Die Hardest and follows them up with sequels to Red, an action movie about old people staring Helen Mirren and John Malkovich. The genre is old. The audience is old. The kids don’t care so we are left to our own devices, grasping at nostalgic crazy straws watching old men limping toward their next shot of testosterone.
So now, of course, the next logical step is that Sean Penn will get in on the Old Man Action. Actually writing that on paper and reading it out loud to myself doesn’t make much sense at all. Hell, I work with what I’m given. Mr. Penn (age 54) has enlisted the director of Leeson’s Taken to herald him in as the next Elder Ass Kicker. The result is a standard action flick that has a thick air of seriousness that kills whatever fun that might be had. It seems that Mr. Penn cannot, will not, lighten up.
Penn is Terrier, a special ops agent that did some terrible things in the Congo years ago. He left behind a lover. A lover he loved very much. After an attempt on his life, Terrier deduces that the wrong people know about a super-secret mission and has branded a target on his head. He trots around the globe looking for answers and punching various folks in the face. He re-kindles his love for his lover. And he has brain damage. And Javier Bardem is in it. He’s always fun to watch.
The film was structured in way to ensure that Mr. Penn has “moments” but these heavy/serious “moments” are laughable. In this setting it comes off as overacting. Mr. Penn is a very gifted actor but he never gets on the level of this material to sell it. He is buff, however, and does find a way to take his shirt off about 8 times during the flick. Don’t blame, he’s worked hard and deserves it.
With a plot ripped from Schwarzenegger’s Commando and a lead actor that never gels with the material The Gunman is hard to like. I also couldn’t get past the idea that Penn is a real life activist and would set a silly action movie against the real life horror going on in Africa as the backdrop. It minimizes the injustice and if there is a statement other than “forgive the people that do wrong to those less fortunate,” I missed it.