American Assassin
American Assassin is an action thriller about a man wanting to stop terrorists and the counterterrorism unit that he encounters starring Dylan O’Brien and Michael Keaton. The film is rated 14A, was filmed in England and Italy (they sure loved showing off landmarks in Rome), and is based on the novel by Vince Flynn of the same name from 2010 (he wrote 15 novels in the series). Both leads show their action hero, tough guy side but their moments of brevity seem out of character, although perhaps those unpredictable moments were intended. Most characters were unnecessarily hard on each other and while I could sympathize with their motivations, I don’t feel like I got to know any of them well. Many scenes heavy on dialogue did not have instrumental, which felt like they slowed down the pacing of the film, also those roles that talked a lot seemed to just show up to move the plot along, (and back to a gun fight). A hidden gem in the film is Scott Adkins who has all the makings of a lead but again is not given much to work with, other than stealing scenes with his humour and athleticism. Removing the scenes that slowed the film and replacing them with more scenes for the 2 leads and the villain(s) to develop would have helped. American Assassin does give you a taste of what modern, urban warfare could look like and if it is successful, could turn into a franchise around the young star.
2017, 14A, 1h 52m
Distributor – Lionsgate
Budget / Worldwide Box Office (in millions) – $33 / $22 (and counting)
Cast & Crew
While the film is directed by Michael Cuesta, who recently made Kill the Messenger (2014 crime drama with Jeremy Renner) and Roadie (2011 music drama with Ron Eldard), it has 4 screenwriters, Stephen Schiff (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 2010), Michael Finch (Interrogation, 2016), Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (who were 2 of the 3 screenwriters for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, 2016). The music is composed by Steven Price who also did Baby Driver (2017 crime written and directed by Edgar Wright), and Suicide Squad (2016 action with Will Smith). Dylan O’Brien was most recently in Teen Wolf (2011-2017 action horror series), Deepwater Horizon (2016 action drama with Mark Wahlberg), and will next be seen in Maze Runner: The Death Cure. Michael Keaton was most recently in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017 action sci-fi), The Founder (2016 drama about the dramatic rise of McDonald’s), and will next be seen in Dumbo. Also appearing is Sanaa Lathan, David Suchet, Scott Adkins, and Taylor Kitsch.
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