{"id":15118,"date":"2017-09-13T23:45:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T21:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/responsive.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents\/?p=15118"},"modified":"2022-09-03T14:16:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T12:16:56","slug":"american-assassin-a-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/lifestyle\/movie-reviews\/american-assassin-a-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"American Assassin: A movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Director Michael Cuesta
\nWriter Stephen Schiff
\nCast \u00a0Dylan O’Brien,\u00a0Taylor Kitsch,\u00a0Michael Keaton<\/p>\n

RATE: 3\/5<\/p>\n

AGE RESTRICTION: [R]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s got the word assassin in the title. Rest assured it deserves its age restriction.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/h2>\n

Hard to figure a fun movie that isn\u2019t very good. This movie isn\u2019t very good. The plot has holes you can drive a planet through (should diving planets ever become a thing), and simple things like interesting characters and interesting plots are sort of skipped. But, having said that the movie is a lot of fun. There are gun battles, and shooting, and people getting shot, a lot. There are explosions and big bangs and things \u2026 exploding, a lot. There are a few hot women and a few hot guys and one grizzled old warrior type, so that\u2019s good. It\u2019s lots of fun. But it really isn\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n

Story<\/h2>\n

Vince Flynn is a best selling author known for writing the series of book this movie if taken from. And as such I\u2019d expect a series of movies to follow fast on the footsteps of the first. Hey, if Jason Bourne can do it, why not Mitch Rapp (well there are a few reasons \u2026 but I digress). The story follows the beginnings of CIA superagent Mitch Rapp\u2019s humble beginnings as he\u2019s inducted into the CIA\u2019s clandestine black ops teams.<\/p>\n

After seeing his fianc\u00e9 murdered in-front of him by terrorists on an Ibiza beach, Rapp become obsessed with reaping revenge. The CIA soon recruits him and Rapp becomes an American Assassin under the gruff tutelage of veteran wet works operative Stan Hurley. Before long (really it doesn\u2019t take long at all) Rapp and Hurley, plus a sort of good-looking guy and an actually good-looking woman, head off to hunt bad guys.<\/p>\n

What happens then is pretty much what you\u2019d expect. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, the hero saves the day, the gruff guy softens and they all live happilly, if moddily (seriously there\u2019s a lot of pouting, sulking and very intense jaw clenching), ever after.<\/p>\n

Did I mention the guns, explotions, and good-looking people? Good.<\/p>\n

Character<\/h2>\n

I find Vince Flynn\u2019s books a little one-dimensional. It seems to be a plague among contemporary action novels. Spy thrillers, military stories, anything with an ex-special forces soldier in it. They all seem to think that what the reader wants is pulp action movie stuff: thin stories, shallow characters, trite backstories, predictable narratives. To me they seem the written equivalent of straight to DVD action movies. Again, they can be fun, but fun can only sustain one for so long.<\/p>\n

No-where is this more evident than in the book\u2019s or movie\u2019s characters. If we don\u2019t care about the people, then we don\u2019t care about the movie. It\u2019s that simple. Mitch Rapp, played passably by Dylan O’Brien, suffers a huge and horrific loss at the beginning of the film \u2026 and that\u2019s kind of it in terms of caring about him. He doesn\u2019t have much of a sense of humour, he doesn\u2019t seem particularly intuitive, or intelligent, or resourceful, or \u2026 anything. Oh, sorry, he is very good-looking (although in reality his shaggy haired, American, grunge-hunk thing isn\u2019t really an asset for clandestine special operations. Operatives kind of want to look a little bit more non-descript and \u2026 dare I say\u2026 ethnic. At least cut your hair so you don\u2019t look like a Cali surf bum).<\/p>\n

And unfortunately the other characters are similarly shallow. One of the reasons I was looking forward to this film was because Michael Keaton is in it. He seems, over the last few years, to have been choosing movies very carefully. And delivering stellar performances. Films like Birdman<\/strong>, Spotlight<\/strong>, The Founder<\/strong> could lead one to think that a Michael Keaton movie is going to have some guts and a little depth. Aparrently not. Stan Hurley is your typical mean, cold, stoic son-of-a-b*&#% killing instructor. He is driven, he is capable, he is \u2026 um \u2026 ja, that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d talk about the other performances, but I forgot them, so\u2026<\/p>\n

Interestingly I don\u2019t totally fault the actors for these disapointing performaces. They really have little to work with in a script that just wants to get to the next gun battle and explotion.<\/p>\n

Vision<\/h2>\n

I think I\u2019ve kind of covered vision, or lack thereof. Michael Cuesta seems to have mainly directed TV. There\u2019s some good stuff there, Elementary<\/strong>, Homeland<\/strong>, Dexter<\/strong>, to name a few. But TV directors these days aren\u2019t really visionaries. Showrunners are visionaries, and directors sort of facilitate those visions. This seems evident in Cuesta\u2019s American Assassin, except there\u2019s no showrunner.<\/p>\n

So<\/h2>\n

Lots of fun if you don\u2019t pay too much attention to plot, character, story arc, or any of that silly stuff. Just enjoy the guns, explosions and pretty people.<\/p>\n

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