Under the bridge, how did you know?
If there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you.
Who teaches you?
I don't remember. That's the second thing they teach you.

Ronin is one of my favorite action movies. It's full of people being smart and doing things that aren't preposterous. Everyone just feels like they're talented and former spies and the movie allows the audience to have some intellect while watching it.

In the end it's really a Robert DeNiro star vehicle. But I can handle that because he's so good. The people he's working with keep asking him questions (like the one above) trying to figure out who he is, and he keeps coming back with answers that have some substance, but not much. It's great, he's making friends and learning about people, without actually telling them anything interesting about himself. Which is exactly what a good spy should be doing (Spy Game had a great bit about why this is so - any lies you tell to someone are things that now have to be true forever when dealing with that person.)

Plus Ronin has some of the best car chases on film. As far as I'm concerned The Matrix Reloaded only wins because motorcycles are cool and they get to cheat by being a virtual world and do things that don't work in the really real world.

I also admire the singular purpose of this movie. There really is no outside point to it. They're not there to save the world, or stop something huge from happening, they're just there to do a job. And no one (including the audience) ever really knows the significance of that job. This is a character movie, that happens to have good action too.

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