Mitch Rapp (The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien) loses the girl of his dreams. The love he once had is now replaced with anger and vengeance. He grows out his hair and beard, and begins hunting down the terrorists that shot up his paradise. Thus, an American Assassin is born. And to my surprise, O’Brien is a believable badass that can carry his own. He’s no Jason Bourne, but getting his hands bloody looks good on him.
Rapp is unhinged and unpredictable, yet he gets the job done. That catches the eye of the CIA, specifically their Counter-terrorism chief Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan). She wants him working for them, only she’ll need some help teaching him how fighting the bad guys really works. Enter the incomparable Michael Keaton as Stan Hurley, an ex-Navy SEAL that has seen it all before and Rapp doesn’t impress him much.
Training begins on killing and being smart about it and, before you know it, there’s a mission to be accomplished. Hurley hates getting personal, but it becomes just that once Ghost (Taylor Kitsch) comes back from the dead. He’s an American mercenary working for the wrong side and has been where Rapp is now. Lets just say his time spent with Hurley didn’t go too well. I don’t want to give too many details, but it involves terrorists and nuclear weapons. Oh, you’ve seen that one before? We all have.
American Assassin, based on the novels from the late Vince Flynn, can’t help but feel ordinary. Moviegoers have seen some spectacular spy shit, so trying to impress us these days is a difficult target to hit. James Bond, Ethan Hunt, and Jason Bourne have spoiled us. Director Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger) does take a steady aim at it though, generating enough action and thrills to keep the story moving at a brisk pace. While it doesn’t take much effort to enjoy, there’s a lingering laziness on Cuesta’s part for his inability to make us sit up and take notice of Rapp kicking ass. Regardless of how aroused we all get from action around here, you gotta bring something new to the fight to be memorable.
But make no mistake, O’Brien’s fully capable of taking American Assassin and making it his. I believe he’ll have another crack at it. For as long as he wants to, keep bringing Keaton back as well. He’s a virtuoso veteran that never seems to let a scene go to waste. We want him on our team. We need him on our team.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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