22 Bullets

I’ve heard a few good things about “22 Bullets” so I put some effort into getting a copy.  The film is also originally in French, so I had to spend some time finding a viewable translation.  I don’t really like dubbed films, so I opted for English sub-titles.  Too bad the ones I got were done via automatic machine translation (I am pretty sure it was Google Translate).  They conveyed the meaning, but had no authentic beauty.

Anyways, back to the movie itself.  For me it was a disappointment. I enjoyed Jean Reno acting, as I almost always do.  But everything else was bad.  The story was very simplistic and very straight forward.  No plot twists there.  The acting of most other characters was mediocre.  And really it was a move with nothing much happening.

On top of that, I have a problem with movies that make idols out of criminals and that promote criminal way of life.  I think we have enough crap in this world already to be asking for more, especially in such a way.  Maybe it was lost in translation, but “22 Bullets” seemed liked that kind of movie.

Overall, a 3 out of 5, mostly for Jean Reno.

Ronin

Ronin (1998)While reading up about Japanese samurai I came across the concept of ronin, that lead me to a movie “Ronin“. It had a good rating and a respectable cast, so I decided to watch it.

Directed by: John Frankenheimer
Genres: Action, Crime, Thriller
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth, Michael Lonsdale, Jan Triska, Jonathan Pryce, Ron Perkins, Féodor Atkine, Katarina Witt, Bernard Bloch, Dominic Gugliametti, Alan Beckworth
IMDB raintg: 7.1
My rating: 8.0 [rate 8.0]

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