Guest Writer Review: The American

Pictured: Nothing actually happening.

The American, starring George Clooney, is . . . well . . . not much. I assumed this movie would involve a fair amount of action and violence, after viewing multiple previews involving Clooney being buff and “playing” with guns, but tragically this is not the case. Nor is this movie really in the category of “romance:” despite multiple scenes of Clooney having sex with a prostitute, the focus is clearly not on one specific relationship. After looking at numerous lists of film genres and sub-genres, it’s genuinely hard to figure out where this would fit under. Perhaps in a trash bin? That’s where I put it.

The main focus in this movie seemed to be landscape scenes involving mountains and little towns and, of course, close-ups of Clooney’s face. If you are a die-hard fan of Clooney then you will probably enjoy staring at his face, and you can excitedly watch his eyes as he looks side to side waiting to get shot at (which rarely happens). We are never really told who Clooney’s character is, and no solid background information on him or what company he works for. His “mission” is to build a gun for an assassin while maintaining under the radar, and that’s the only goal.


The “acting” in The American is also sub-par. Although there are a few scenes involving anyone who isn’t George Clooney, they are, to a man, awful. And of course, they are rarely shown, because about seventy percent of the scenes involve Clooney running around a small town or by a riverside. If he isn’t doing that he is thinking, having sex, or building a gun. Dialogue is very scarce in this movie, and conversations are short and don’t say much.


Remember in the previews where Clooney was holding guns a lot? Well, he did in fact hold a gun during most of the movie. However, the amount of time spent shooting these guns? About three minutes. Those three minutes are the only action in this film. I had a feeling that they were trying to build up suspense throughout the whole movie and then at the end there would be a fantastic boom! And I was once again wrong. There was no suspense because there was no exciting event at the end, or the middle, or the beginning, OR AT ALL! Nothing in this movie could “bring you in.” I was waiting, waiting, waiting for something and it never appeared.


I saw this movie in the theaters (sadly) and following it, the reactions were quite interesting. Some of the things that were muttered were “this movie sucked” “I was waiting for something exciting to happen and it didn’t come” “why did they even make this movie?” I was thinking these same things.


So, overall this movie was a dud. There was no enjoyable content and in my opinion there was nothing good to this film at all. If you are attracted to this movie because of the previews (like me) you will be very disappointed. If for some reason you still want to watch The American I recommend waiting until it is out of theaters so you don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money on it. Admittedly, movie popcorn is pretty good.

Overall Review: Dislike

Guest Writer Review by: Mark Bykerk