I remember back in the late 90′s when I saw the trailer for Ronin starring Robert DeNiro. It looked like an international spy thriller, which, in my mind, was a role that was a bit out of sorts for the actor. Then again, if the star is a good actor, and DeNiro is one of the best, than he should pull this off, regardless of what we’re used to seeing him play. I never did get around to seeing it back then, so the film’s release on Blu-ray was my first experience with it…and what a great format to introduce yourself to a film. Hold on to your seats and strap on the Kevlar. Ronin is about to take you on a whirlwind tour of France, except on this site-seeing adventure, you are more likely to experience well-placed bullets and a little espionage as opposed to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.
Film 
The film begins with a group of freelance “experts” looking to cash in on the payday of an upcoming job. Led by an Irish woman known by little more than the name Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), she provides direction to the five gentlemen in the room whose goal is to secure a mysterious case for Deirdre’s mysterious boss. I must commend the director as he did an outstanding job of throwing little nuances in the film for his goal-oriented characters. Take for instance Sam (Robert DeNiro). Sam is a former CIA operative who likes to keep his past close to his chest. You don’t know what his prior history fully consists of, but when the guy operates as comfortably and confident as he does merely steps away from the enemy, you know this is certainly not the first time he’s done this.
The rest of the team consists of weapons expert Spence (Sean Bean), French operative Vincent (Jean Reno), German computer expert Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard) and American driver Larry (Skipp Sudduth). Everyone has a role to play, but it becomes strikingly obvious that, how did the old saying go…one of these things is not like the other. Sam’s ability to spot a falsehood within the group comes in very handy. Once our cast becomes a little more “fine-tuned,” they proceed in carrying out their daunting and violent task of obtaining the metal case, currently cuffed to its present owner.
Yes this movie is fiction, but I have to say, I was absolutely fascinated by the way Sam goes about his field research of the metal-case-posse he’s after. I’d rather not give too much away by explaining this but it does make you think, the real CIA or any government spy organization for that matter probably carry out their “research” in a similar way, depending on the situation of course. There are simple but ingenious things that Sam does to spy on his adversaries without letting them know they’re being watched…even while he is mere steps from them.
It isn’t long before the bullets start flying and the cars start crashing. Ronin is definitely one film to buckle up for, especially when the time comes for the wicked, white-knuckling vehicle chase through the streets and tunnels of France.
Video
Presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-2 encode, Ronin does look good but sometimes teeters back and forth between “oh yeah that’s some beautiful 1080″ and “um, is that upconverted 480?” A lot of it has to do with the dated look of the film. I know some directors will purposely do this to add some intended atmosphere to the film’s appearance. My advice? Leave it alone. I’m really not certain if this look was intended in Ronin or not, but let the environment you are filming in create the atmosphere. When you start messing with the look of the film, it can detract from the film’s delivery.
Throughout several periods of watching the movie, I felt like this was a film released in 1988, not 1998. Some folks may prefer this. I can’t say I was a big fan. Rambo II and III look crystal-clear on Blu-ray and those two films predate Ronin by over a decade. In my mind, there was no reason this film couldn’t have looked as clean. As for dancing film grain, there is some present here and there, but it doesn’t really distract the viewer. It is easily tolerable, but we can always do without it. I am harboring on the negative here and would like to settle with a 3.75 rating in this category. However, since we do not utilize fractions outside of a half, I’ll generously round up and provide it with a 4.
Audio 
The storyline itself was fantastic, but another high note on this disc is the audio delivery. It utilizes the capabilities of surround sound to the fullest and does so quite often throughout the movie. I can go into great depth and breakdown each action sequence on the screen and how the good everything sounded…and I will…okay, maybe just a bit though. There is no shortage of squealing tires, fired bullets and clear dialogue to complete this movie’s audio track. Sound can make or break a film so when you see a car on screen, brakes locked trying to negotiate a tight corner, you can darn well bet your ears will perk up when that smoldering rubber slides over a concrete surface from the left speaker to the right as the vehicle skids into the same respective direction. Gunshots? They were more plentiful than turkey on Thanksgiving Day. As far as Blu-ray movies go, this is the closest it has sounded to being on a shooting range without actually being on the shooting range.
Ironically enough, I would have to say the single-most impressive use of surround sound was in an environment encumbered by a fair amount of pedestrian traffic. Inside the building you hear the chatter of everyone present, but suddenly the background discussions travel from the rear left channel to the rear right with undeniable emphasis. It added so much realism in that scene that I had to interrupt the flow of the movie and go back for a second listen right away. It literally felt as if there were a table of customers to my right.
I almost forgot, the dialogue in this movie was as clear as glass. Not one time did I find myself leaning forward trying to strenuously capture what was spoken. This movie goes in my top three as some of the best surround sound usage I have come across thus far. Hats off (and chambers emptied) to Ronin‘s audio.
Special Features 
Unfortunately, there is not much to say here because the content was seriously lacking. Under the actual “Special Features” option on the menu, there is one trailer and that is it (the trailer is for Ronin). You will find another option on the menu labeled “Trailers.” You are not going to find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow here as we are shown nothing more than three trailers for other MGM or 20th Century Fox movies. Boooo. That’s ‘boring’ with a capital ‘B.’ For the sake of continuity, I am just going to lob both of these menu options together here.
- Ronin trailer – Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Jonathan Pryce (2:28)
- The Usual Suspects trailer - Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Benicio Del Toro (2:24)
- Walking Tall trailer – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (1:16)
- Out of Time trailer – Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan (2:08)
Final Thoughts
The international espionage/spy thing has been done a hundred times over. Still, Ronin threw enough unique content and asterisks in there to set it apart from its brethren to maintain a fresh look with some zest. It has that pretty impressive car chase I mentioned earlier, yet, the film in and of itself acts like a car chase with its viewers. You are in pursuit with the lead car in view long enough to understand the premise and keep that adrenaline going. At the same time, there are enough quick turns and periods where you lose sight of what you thought was within your grasp, thus throwing the proverbial curve ball at your understanding. Ronin is a great film that I am sorry I missed in the theaters some years back, but would recommend as a definite buy on the Blu-ray format.
