Review American Assassin (2018): Very dumb!

genre: action, crime, espionage

As a big film fan I have seen my fair share of good ones and real bad ones. Most of the time the bad ones are so uniquely bad that they become entertaining. American Assassin is not a terrible film but it is one where you will feel duped especially because of the utter stupidity displayed on the screen. Unfortunately this stupidity is not as enjoyable as it could have been.

The biggest mistake this film makes is that it takes itself far too seriously. Except Keaton. Michael Keaton is very aware this is a crap film and goes maniacal and comedic whenever he can. And thank god for that because he at least makes it worth watching. As for Dylan O'Brien as Mitch Rapp who is most famous for the Maze Runner franchise. He is miscast. I didn't buy his path of vengeance one bit. I wanted to and I did give him the benefit of te doubt. He just lacks the subtle acting skills for that. You need to be able to express pain non verbally. With him they used flashbacks or other visual aids. And normally that does work but somehow in American Assassin nothing has real impact. It's like everyone involved went through the motions without actually caring about anything. Even the supposed dramatic moments barely arrive. And if they do it's so generic and casual you wonder why they even bothered. Taylor Kitsch as villain also doesn't work. At first I thought they were going to make him a double spy or something. That would have made things more interesting. But no, he is just a plain villain who wants to do evil things. The reason for why he wants to do this is also one of the most generic ones. I don't know it does seem like some work and money has been put into this production but I don't think anyone cared one bit. And that is exactly how you feel at the end. You won't care.

Total waste of time. I can't believe this is based on a bestseller. But perhaps the filmmakers left out the juicy and meaty parts. Who knows? It doesn't matter. The film stinks and is very dumb! Like eighty percent of the events are too ridiculous for words which would have been fine if they made me laugh. But nothing of the sort.