AMERICAN ASSASSIN (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

american assassin (2017) movie

Genre               |   Action Thriller

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   112 minutes

Released         |   14 September 2017

cast

​Dylan O'Brien as Mitch Rapp
Michael Keaton as Stan Hurley
Shiva Negar as Annika

director

Michael Cuesta

writer

Stephen Schiff
Michael Finch
Edward Zwick & Marshall Hersovitz

cinematographer

Enrique Chediak

music

Steven Price

film editor

​​Conrad Buff IV

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box office result

Worldwide             $66,676,062   

Australia                 $​2,504,535

North America        $​36,249,674

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the best dialogue

​Stan Hurley: Patriotism exists because people like and people like me need a higher cause. Something bigger than us.

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things to spend money on ...

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AMERICAN ASSASSIN (2017) IMAGES

AMERICAN ASSASSIN (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​AMERICAN ASSASSIN follows the rise of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien), a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair is then enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Together the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East.​

AMERICAN ASSASSIN (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 14 September 2017
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

​American Assassin is a competent action movie based on the Vince Flynn novel of the same name. The film's producers have chosen to start the movie series at a point a long way into the book series to capitalize on the relative youth of Dylan O’Brien, the film’s star. In something of a departure from the novel, the movie places O’Brien’s protagonist, Mitch Rapp, in the thick of the action from the beginning of the story. This provides O’Brien’s character with a strong motivation and energizes the first half of the movie, as Rapp comes to terms with the hand he's been dealt by the cruel hand of fate. Where the wheels become wobbly is in American Assassin’s second half. Director Michael Cuesta tries to keep a lid on proceedings but the finale’s ambition veers off into territory previously laid claim to by the likes of Pierce Brosnan’s latter Bond entries, echoing the ridiculous antics Die Another Day’s finale!

Concentrating on the upside of what American Assassin has to offer, Dylan O’Brien is great as Mitch Rapp. The Maze Runner star demonstrates that he has the ability to act up against genuine talent; in this instance Michael Keaton as CIA undercover operative Stan Hurley. Keaton is a very assured actor but O’Brien has no problem matching it with him and their difficult relationship is a real highlight of the movie. O’Brien’s lengthy absences from the public eye after his serious accident on the set of the third Maze Runner film had fans concerned that his injuries may have been worse than thought. However, his physique in this new film would suggest otherwise. Not only is his acting great, he's in absolute tip-top condition and the physicality his action scenes rank up there with the early Matt Damon Bourne movies and the more recent Keanu Reeves John Wick cinematic outings. Michael Keaton is no slouch either. People tend to forget that Keaton has been doing movies for nearly 40 years and, before that, had appeared in small roles on TV shows throughout the mid-1970s. At 66 years of age, he's in great shape. One of things that really sets Keaton’s Hurley apart is in clear mismatch with 21st Century spy techniques. He's a soldier first and a CIA man second. Even the costume choices made for the character reflect this. In one scene he appears at the CIA wearing a suit and tie, but it's something straight out of 1991. It's these small attention-to-detail elements of Hurley that allow the viewer to invest that bit extra and reflect upon what his motivations are in dealing with his latest student in Rapp, despite the fact that Hurley seems to be a man out-of-step with the 21st Century covert caper.

In addition to O’Brien and Keaton, Shiva Negar as Annika and Sanaa Lathan as Irene Kennedy both impress. Negar’s role is not written that well, but the actress has good chemistry with O’Brien that allows her to bring a softer, nurturing to her character that make her appealing in the film’s quieter moments. Sanaa Lathan is more one-note in her performance as the CIA senior official in charge of the undercover team that Rapp is assigned to, but manages to inject her presence into scenes with both O’Brien and Keaton. Her character is more of an expository cypher and she pops up at various points throughout the movie where the writers are required to move the plot on quickly. Taylor Kitsch plays a prominent role in the movie’s second half, as his “Ghost” character becomes the focus of Rapp and Hurley’s efforts to stop a nuclear disaster become the story’s main focus. Unfortunately, this is where American Assassin starts to run dry of interesting material. The movie becomes a simple “race against the clock” and efforts to link the relationship between Hurley and Ghost as the catalyst for the impending nuclear disaster feeling both contrived and cliched. Those viewers with a reasonable grounding in the Spy-Fi genre will be well and truly aware that they’ve seen much of what American Assassin’s finale has to offer before. The climax seems just plain silly and, unfortunately, diminishes the intensity of the movie’s first half. There’s no doubt that Dylan O’Brien could make Mitch Rapp his own if American Assassin succeeds at the Box Office, but that’s a reasonable size “if”. Taken on its merits, American Assassin is an enjoyable diversion, but, for it to be a franchise, there’s needs to be a little more focus on not making the good guys the bad guys!

AMERICAN ASSASSIN MOVIE (2017) USEFUL LINKS

American Assassin (2017) - IMDb
American Assassin - Wikipedia
​American Assassin (2017) - Rotten Tomatoes

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