American Assassin

The opening scene of American Assassin depicts a happy young couple frolicking at a beach resort in Spain.  Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) has just proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Katrina (Charlotte Vega), and they seem destined for wedded bliss.  However, anyone who thinks that a movie with a title like the one this one has is going to feature the couple living Happily Ever After is fooling themselves.  Moments later, terrorists storm the resort, and Katrina is killed.

This fuels Mitch's quest for revenge, and a year and a half later, we find that he grown a shaggy head of hair and a beard (because everybody in the movies who is devoting their life to revenge always lets their personal grooming lapse), and has trained himself in the martial arts and guns to the point that he is now a one-man weapon.  He manages to infiltrate the terrorist cell that attacked the resort that day, and when he finally gets face to face with the man who killed his fiance, the CIA shows up and guns down all the extremists before he can.  It turns out the CIA has been following him and his actions to infiltrate the terrorists, and want to offer him a job.  Agent Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) is impressed enough by his skills, and wants him to join an elite covert group.  But in order to do so, Mitch must first pass the rigorous program set up by an ex-Navy SEAL named Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton, who as expected, delivers the best performance in the film).

American Assassin more or less follows a predetermined path set by many action thrillers just like it, and never once surprises or strays from the expected course.  It's the kind of movie where you could walk out after the first half hour or so, and then amaze your friends who stayed behind by almost correctly guessing every plot development that came afterward.  The cocky Mitch and the stern Stan start out hating each other, and while they never grow friendly, they do develop a begrudging respect for their ways.  Mitch must learn to not use his anger and past pain if he wants to be successful in the line of duty.  There's a trusted agent on the team who turns out to have a secret, and has another agenda.  Finally, the villain (Taylor Kitsch) is a former agent and student of Stan's who has gone rogue, knows all of his former mentor's secrets, and is plotting to put together a nuclear bomb. 

There's nothing wrong with anything here, it simply feels rehashed from beginning to end.  And were it not for some big names in the cast that the movie somehow managed to draw in, this probably would be right at home going direct to DVD.  The action is routine throughout, with a lot of fights depicted with close ups and a camera that just can't sit still.  But what really kills the interest is that a lot of the cast simply can't muster much energy, almost as if they know they're stuck in a retread.  Keaton is the only one who gets to display any life as the grizzled trainer who is not afraid to stick a gun his mouth, and laughs when he is being tortured by having his fingernails torn out.  It's the kind of dark, off-kilter, tough guy role that Keaton can excel at when needed, and frankly, I started to wish that he was the main character instead of the predictable Rapp.

This is also a very dark and dour movie, with no moments of levity or humor.  Movies like John Wick and its sequel have proven that even movies about a total badass can poke fun at itself occasionally, and still be awesome.  A sense of humor could have done wonders here.  In fact, the one time I did laugh was unintentional, and it didn't dawn on me until much later.  At one point in the film, the heroes kidnap a physicist who has been hired by the villain to help build the nuclear bomb.  They tie him up naked, and then stuff him in the trunk of a car.  Then, they douse him with gasoline, and threaten him with a lighted cigarette until he talks.  He gives them some information, but Keaton decides to close the trunk, and keep him locked up in there.  We never see or hear from the physicist after that, so for all we know, he's still tied up and waiting to be released back there when the movie is over.

American Assassin obviously wants to be a throwback to the more simplistic action thrillers of the 80s and 90s.  There's another movie out there that aims to do the same called The Hitman's Bodyguard.  It's not a great movie, but it represents its genre much better, and is a lot more fun than this in just about every regard.  This movie is competently made, but you just have to wonder what the point of it was when it's all over.

0 comments