While some of the chase scenes are guaranteed to leave you wincing and dodging in your seat, the sheer abundance of action sequences eventually nullifies the characters. As a result, regardless of DeNiro and his performance as Sam, Ronin becomes just another big budget action movie that wallows in its own pyrotechnics. And that's a shame because Sam is one of the most interesting lead characters to grace an action movie in the past decade. Other characters also make an impression, especially Natascha McElhone as the woman in charge of the covert team. She and Sam share a professional appreciation for each other that begins to spill over into their personal lives, but their dangerous profession only allows for business relationships.
Personal lives are irrelevant.
Ultimately, the filmmakers fall prey to the action-movie genre and let the promising characters deteriorate into a blurry, confusing mess. Ronin is a near-miss. With more attention to Sam, this might have been a great movie.