Ronin - 4 stars out of 10

Ronin - 4 stars out of 10

"Ronin" is a decent espionage thriller but lacks in several areas.  First, the title's association with the samuri from the feudal period was entirely unnecessary.  Even after the random scene where that ancillary character explains what the ronin were (and the awkward introductory captions), it just felt like the producers saying “The ronin have absolutely nothing to do with this story but we're going to try to tie it in anyways.”  My other complaint is that the first 20 minutes are entirely confusing.  And not in that great "I'm on the edge of my seat and can't wait for an awesome revelation!" way, but in a "I have no clue who these people are and am not sure why I turned this movie on" way.  It just feels like you missed something by not watching the preview first.  Good films explain themselves without requiring prior knowledge.  I was also really annoyed by a misplaced and unnecessary love scene.  It had nothing to do with this film.  At all.  That being said, the main draw for "Ronin" is its two incredible car chase scenes, and they were actually so good that they made the entire film worth watching.  The acting is pretty good, with DeNiro delivering one of his best acting moments EVER during the bullet removal scene.  This was a nice role for Jonathan Pryce, Jean Reno is always awesome, and I really enjoyed Natascha McElhone (that girl from The Truman Show)!  Stellan Skarsgard was okay, but nothing special when you consider some of his past roles.  Finally, I know that they are trying to maintain some mystery about the box by treating the ending the way they did, probably trying to make a point that "it doesn't matter what is in the box, it's what people will do for money," but all that it did was left me unsatisfied.  Watch it for the car chases, but don't expect much more.