THE GUNMAN no stars

Despite a terrific cast, (Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone, Mark Rylance), this lack-lustre thriller never really builds up a head of steam nor is it ever really credible. Penn is the former assassin who, eight years after his last kill, finds himself the target for a change. It begins in the Congo before moving to London, Barcelona and Gibraltar and it's certainly handsomely shot though to make up for the deficiencies in the script director Pierre Morel lays on the tourist shtick a little too heavily and a film needs more than just pretty pictures to sustain our interest. Nobody is really at their best though Rylance, in much too small a part, works wonders with the material he's been given. Watchable, nothing more.