American Assassin

'AMERICAN ASSASSIN': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The new spy thriller based on author Vince Flynn's 2010 novel (of the same name), which is part of a popular spy book series. It stars Dylan O'Brien as a 23-year-old that obsessively wants revenge for the death of his girlfriend, in a terrorist attack, and is recruited by the CIA (as part of their black ops program). He's trained by a Cold War veteran played by Michael Keaton. The movie also costars Taylor Kitsch, Shiva Negar and Sanna Lathan. It was directed by Michael Cuesta (who also helmed 2014's 'KILL THE MESSNEGER') and it was written by Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Marshall Herskovitz and director Edward Zwick (who was originally set to direct the film as well). It's gotten mixed reviews from critics, and it's also a mild hit at the Box Office as well. The film starts out promising, but later it becomes pretty routine and forgettable.

Mitch Rapp (O'Brien) lost his parents in a car crash when he was 14. At 23 he's just found happiness again, after proposing to his girlfriend on a beach (and she accepts), but then his new fiancé is murdered in a terrorist attack in front of him (at that same moment). Rapp desperately wants revenge, and he obsessively trains (and plans) for it. The CIA becomes worried about his mental well being though, after tracking him, but instead of detaining Rapp, they recruit him. He's then trained by a Cold War veteran, named Stan Hurley (Keaton), and his first mission is to stop an old trainee of Hurley's (Kitsch), who's a lot like Rapp, from starting another world war in the Middle East.

The opening scene of the movie is really intense, violent and engaging. After that, the origin story of Mitch Rapp is still pretty cool and involving, but then (about half way through the film) it starts to feel really routine and somewhat boring. The action scenes are all still decent, throughout the film, but the story just loses your interest. Still, it could be a decent setup for a spy movie franchise (like they're hoping it is), and I definitely have no problems with Dylan O'Brien or the rest of the cast.

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If they would just make the Mitch Rapp series into movies, they could make Atleast 22 movies. Probably more and if done right, they could make A LOT of money!!! It's an amazing series. This movie was good but doesn't do the book justice!! Will someone please take this seriously as a screen play??!!! Lol.

They characters in the books have so much depth and so much back story. You could make a whole universe about it. It would rival the extraction series with Chris Hemsworth. If you like a good read, then I suggest you read how Rapp consistently powers his way through Americas enemies while taking out corrupt politicians along the way!! I mean Claudia Gold could be played by Gal Gadot. Irene Kennedy by Tessa Thompson or Shuri from Black panther. Rapp is a toss up. Only a few people could be chosen to play him. Dylan O brien did a good job though!! Come on!! Make it happen!!

After reading a few of the negative comments, I was apprehensive about seeing this movie. Glad I trusted my instincts and the previews. Let me make this very simple, as most other reviewers already provide you with a movie synopsis. If you enjoy movies like Die Hard, Jason Bourne, John Wick, Taken, etc. - you'll enjoy this movie. I do enjoy those movies, and I did enjoy this movie. It is exactly what it sets out to be, an entertaining action flick.

Better than many reviewers indicate.

American Assassin follows Author Vince Flynn's character Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) and his mentor Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) who leads a super secret CIA operative group tasked to take out the world's most threatening bad guys - A secret camp in the wooded hills near Roanoke, Virginia provides a select group of hand-picked field operatives (assassins) with elite specialized training (for assassins) that supposedly exceeds Navy Seals training in sophistication of infiltrating and blending into targeted zones, with a killing effectiveness that surpasses Bourne and Bond.

One problem here - when you take on two of the most successful action franchises in movie history (Bourne and Bond), you better have your ducks in a row (including most importantly the script), and that is where this film fails.

The screenwriter needed to produce a more cohesive script in adapting Flynn's prequel book. The film looks and sounds like it was rushed to production before the script and story boards were thought through and revised.

Time is money, but not investing enough time sometimes leads to losing your entire investment, and if the desired outcome was a green light for a franchise, the "fail" here was in the script.

Michael Keaton holds this film up, and although I have a hard time seeing him in the role, he pulled it off with his trade-mark push-the-envelope edginess.

O'Brien was at first, hard to swallow in the role with his quiet vulnerable demeanor and school age heartthrob looks (with some edgy outlier undertones) that have made him so popular with millennials. But he frankly did an admirable job, and is the most promising element of the film in terms of franchising this into sequels. Not many lines of dialogue, but like Bourne, Rapp speaks loudly with his fists, feet, intelligence, wiliness, and willingness.

The make-up was amazing in portraying an ever growing number of cuts, bruises, gashes, and other assorted traumas accrued by the cast - realistic, accurate and impressive - among the best ever in film.

Action/fight/vehicle chase scenes were well above par as were the special effects and CGI (only one scene leans fully on CGI and was well done).

Cinematography and editing are very good, and the pacing of the film is excellent for the most part.

My guess is this is a one and done film, but what a shame, as there is great potential for an American Assassin franchise, and this is one if the best recent additions to the action genre, especially given more time to complete the film at a 007 level.

The director and screenwriter(s) need to get it together though, IF there is a sequel - the script is the weakest point, usually a death nail for my reviews, but the director, cinematographer, make-up, and fx make up a lot of ground in that regard.

For the hope of more (and better), I'm giving one additional Star bringing this 7-Star film up to 8/10.

This movie was probably very fresh back in 2017 when it was released. The two younger stars did a pretty good job and it was a sort of showcase of future more mature action or hero roles, if they wanted it. The maiming and gunshots and other forms of violence were more realistic than I normally see. It is a simple plot, yes. Have we seen movies like this before? Yes. But so what. It was a good weekend movie with popcorn and surround sound. Keaton did a good job. It's hard because you recognize him and remember his other famous parts, but that soon dissipated. This was a decent tight film that accomplished what it set out to do.