Review of American Assassin (2017) by Paul B — 14 Sep 2017

Saw the movie last night, opening night, due to my light obsession with Vince Flynn and moreover the Rapp character.

I wanted this to be great since I've had an image of Mitch, Stan and Irene in my minds eye for many years. I actually liked O'Brien in this film - I wanted him to be a little more swarthy, based upon how the book describes him, but it worked. He also had enough swagger to satisfy - particularly in the middle of the film. Michael Keaton didn't quite get to the core of the grit of Stan Hurley and he accepted Mitch too quickly. In fact, they seemed a little too chummy a little too quick (comparing this to the actual American Assassin book). I recognize they combined story lines from several of the books but they didn't need to. The development of Mitch as the covert ops character was so beautifully portrayed in the book and it could have been prolonged much more. It was a disappointment that the training scene was so "light".

Anyway, I give it three stars since there is potential here for an amazing franchise. The core characters work - just need the writers to get it together.