Robert De Niro puts in a sardonic if standard performance as Sam, an operative for hire teamed up with a crew of other rootless mercenaries in a plot to steal a MacGuffinish briefcase for a mystery employer represented by no-nonsense Deirdre (Natascha McElhone). Among the mercenaries is Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård), a Dilbertish Eastern European computer specialist, and Vincent (Jean Reno), the erstwhile coordinator of the unit and a seeming naïf who bonds with Sam. Mishaps, double-crosses, tough-guy badinage, and brutal high-tech violence prevail in various colorful European backgrounds, none of it registering emotionally or ironically, despite Jonathan Pryce's over-the-top turn as a loose-cannon terrorist. The title refers to the masterless samurai of medieval Japan, in particular the legendary avengers of the kabuki play The Loyal Forty-Seven Ronin, which has been adapted to the screen by such great filmmakers as Kenji Mizoguchi. Frankenheimer's updating falls short of both Mizoguchi's genius and his own.