Friday, September 15, 2017

American Assassin Movie Review

Michael Keaton stars in American Assassin

A Means to an End

Rotten Tomatoes Plot: 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. Directed by Michael Cuesta.


Keaton's Hurley summarizes American Assassin in 14 words, "There's some bad people planning some bad things, and we have to stop them." Sound familiar? It should. It's yet another Bourne wannabe, wrapped in darkness (seriously, did someone forget to pay the electricity bill?) and unoriginality. Arab bad guys? Check. Nuclear physicist watch list? Check. Metrosexual action hero? Double check. Seriously, who would you rather have in your corner? 77-year-old Chuck Norris or the skinny kid from Maze Runner? I'll take the Chuckster, especially when there's a "shitload of plutonium" in play. And Charlotte Vega... for reasons, too numerous to mention.

Grade: D