Ronin VHS VHS Widescreen DVD

Jacob has this on DVD.  My mom really likes this movie, mainly because she recognizes several of the locations.

A realistic-feeling look into the wrong side of the law, similar to Heat, one of my favorite films.

The title feels really out of place.  What the heck does a band of vengeful samurai have to do with this bunch?  It didn't affect most of the film, but they had some text at the beginning and some exposition near the end that dwelled on it.  It still didn't make any sense.

Similar to Heat, they portrayed de Niro as very intelligent and experienced.   Unlike Heat, he's not working with a core group.  They're all mercenaries, hired for this one job.  de Niro's character slowly gains the respect of his teammates and gains more control over the operations.  Still, the Irish chick only feeds them as little info as she thinks they need.  Basically, it feels like a device to keep the audience wondering, "what else do we need to know?"  Though it didn't hurt the film.

Lots and lots of car chases and gunfire (a few of which elicited polite clapping from Andy and I.)  Lots of plot twists.  Very little trust among most of the various parties.  After the original battle for the case, the main question concerned how the guy was going to get his money without getting killed.

Not quite as cohesive as Heat.  But overall pretty exciting.  On my brother's Total Movie Value Scale, Matinee with Popcorn and Drinks.

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