American Assassin (2017)

Profoundly stupid and childish at every single step along the way. This was born from a pretty stupid book that was also childish and simple-minded.The book was a total rip-off of An Officer and a Gentleman to the point that I was surprised the author didn't lift the "steers and queers" line.

The story is so ridden with clichés it's like they used a Micro Soft boilerplate model for the script.

Butch-sounding name: Mitch Rapp. Check. Grizzly old vet training the new punk kid. Check.

Arab bad guys right out of an episode of Scooby Doo. Check. Lame martial arts scenes right out of a 9 year old kid's fantasy. Check.

Nothing at all felt real about this movie.

Fmovies: Other than the names of the central characters, this movie bears only passing resemblance to the book. That being said, it works, most of the time. Mitch Rapp is totally believable. Michael Keaton is in darn good shape for a man his age, and his character is believable.

It's too bad that the producers bowed to the cancer of political correctness and made Irene Kennedy black. That was so out of keeping with the Mitch Rapp books. Shame on Hollywood for bowing to pressure.

All in all, the movie was worth the price of the ticket, and I only hope it does well enough at the box office to ensure that the series continues.

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, 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 hearthrob looks that have made him so popular with 12-18 year olds. 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 accrued by the cast - realistic, accurate and impressive - among the best ever in film.

My guess is this is a one and done film, but what a shame as there is great potential for an American Assassin franchise. The director and screenwriter(s) need to get it together though, IF there is a sequel.

For the hope of more (and better), I'm giving one additional Star bringing this 6-Star film up to 7/10.

American Assassin fmovies. Opening scene is expertly executed; the first 30 minutes up to the protagonist getting expert training from Keaton's character were also handled very well. From that point onward though, the film becomes tedious and clichéd. O'Brien does not have much screen presence though he obviously beefed up for this movie. To be honest, I never really cared for the characters. The lead character is noxious and annoying; the actor playing the rogue agent is also unconvincing and should be relegated to acting in sitcoms.

Also, for a movie with the title, you expect a lot of "assassinating" but that does not happen. Most activities in the film are about spying/ espionage work/ counter-terrorism so it should be renamed American Spy or American Special Ops Agent.

This is just a lazy rant as I got nothing better to do in the office.

American Assassin is an action/thriller filled with espionage, intrigue and plenty of action. Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner and MTV's Teen Wolf) plays C.I.A. trainee Mitch Rapp. You'll be amazed at the transformation of O'Brien as he buffs up to play the stone cold killer in American Assassin. The movie is based on the best selling novels of Vince Flynn and directed by Michael Cuesta, who also directs the TV series Homeland.

O'Brien's character, Mitch Rapp, becomes a lone wolf who is obsessed with revenge after terrorists kill his girlfriend while they are on vacation on a small island in the Mediterranean. He trains for a year in MMA and with weapons. He is so ruthless that he is kicked out of both his martial arts class and his weapons training class. His plans are to pose as an American who is sympathetic to the cause of Isis so he can get near enough to kill members of their terrorist cells.

While he's making his plans he also being watched by the C.I.A. and they extract him from his first mission in Libya and offer him a chance to be a part of a super secret and elite black ops team. Sanaa Lathan plays Irene Kennedy, a C.I.A. Deputy Director who is in charge of the black ops team and Michael Keaton (who looks fantastic at age 66) is a former Navy Seal who's in charge of training the team. As an ensemble the actors make for a very entertaining movie.

Keaton and his team travel all over the world to stop a terrorist plot between Russia and Iran to build a nuclear weapon. On the mission the team discovers a former black ops team member, only known as "Ghost", who is now a mercenary and is brokering the deal between the two countries. "Ghost", played by Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) is a former protegee of Keaton who's now seeking revenge against his former mentor and against The United States, a country who he feels betrayed him.

While the cast is strong, it's O'Brien who carries the movie. He's on par with any former actor who's played James Bond except, unlike the Bond characters, he doesn't play his part with any humor or sarcasm. He plays it full out serious. He's a man obsessed with violence and killing, which makes for a very bloody and intense movie.

American Assassin is rated a very strong "R" for violence and it has a run time of 1 hour and 51 minutes. It will keep you enthralled and on the edge of your seat from start to finish. On my "Hollywood Popcorn Scale" I rate American Assassin a JUMBO.

Hollywood Hernandez

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.