The American: I hope you don't have much else to do

George Clooney. A mysterious assassin in Italy on a last job. Wow. Sounds riveting.
No. Not at all actually. Boring, dreadfully boring. I stopped watching it a couple times because I was losing interest and wanted to do some other things. One of those was take a walk outside. That's right, I preferred walking in the dark at freezing temperatures over staying at my laptop watching The American. I liked the premise, and indeed there were some good parts, but this movie was as slow as George W. Bush trying to do a sudoku. I am not all that surprised really, Clooney's recent flicks haven't really been fast-paced, action shoot-em-ups. Syriana, a movie I really liked, was pretty slow. Obviously a movie doesn't have to be like one of the "Transporter" franchise in order to be good. In the American, however, there just wasn't really enough of a story to keep one riveted, at least that is how I felt. There are a couple of action sequences, but that is not all I am really looking for. The story felt just kind of ho-hum. The viewer actually doesn't much idea what is going on, except that Clooney is on some sort of job, which is really just to assemble a weapon....for another assassin (yeah, I know, kind of strange). There is very very little dialogue in the movie, and Mr. Clooney spends most of it either looking sad or really pissed. I don't think any Oscars are going to come out of this one. The guy was pretty rigid throughout the whole thing. Part way through  I was thinking: "man, if I went to the theaters to see this thing, I would start shouting random shit just to make it interesting".

I would say this movie has two redeeming qualities: It takes place in Italy, which means there is some pretty cool imagery in it. For a traveling man like myself,  I really enjoyed the setting of this film. The other was the ending. There is a bit of a surprise ending the film, so it wasn't a bore all the way through. There is also some pretty steamy sex scenes, but that might not be a redeeming quality.

I like Clooney and, again, I liked the premise to this film, but it just doesn't come off. Slow is the word of the day, and it doesn't work all that hard to keep the audiences' interest. Definitely not a movie to watch before you go to bed, you will probably end up sleeping on the couch. But if we put Jason Statham in the role.....

Verdict: Stick with the Bourne films.  Grade: C

If you liked this movie you might like: Watching paint dry, or maybe watching grass grow.