by Peter J. O’Connell
American Assassin. Released
USA: Sept. 2017. Runtime: 112 mins. MPAA Rating: R for strong violence
throughout, some torture, language, and brief nudity.
Do we need another butt-kicking secret agent with a license
to kill? Probably not, but director Michael Cuesta has given us one in American Assassin, based on a novel by
Vince Flynn, an author popular with Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives. The
“assassin” is Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien). The film about him may not be
necessary, but it is diverting enough to make a visit to a multiplex
worthwhile.
We first meet Mitch as a carefree young American frolicking
on a Spanish beach with his finance, Katrina (Charlotte Vega). Suddenly, pain
descends on Spain as Islamist terrorists raid the beach, killing many,
including Katrina. Mitch gets a good look at the terrorist leader, Adnan
Al-Mansur (Shahid Ahmed), and embarks on an 18-month intensive program of
research into Arabic, Islam, and terrorist networks. He is burning with desire
to take cold, cold revenge on the man who killed his beloved. Eventually, he
gets the opportunity when he receives an online invite from Al-Mansur to come
to Libya and be considered for membership in a terrorist cell.
Mitch is about to be accepted into the cell and be able to
take his revenge when Orion, a CIA “black ops” team, suddenly stages a raid on
the Libyan site and takes out Al-Mansur itself. Mitch is frustrated, but he has
impressed Deputy CIA Director Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan), who invites him to join
Orion—if he can complete a special, incredibly rigorous, training program, run
by a rock-hard, tough-as-nails veteran Navy SEAL, Stan Hurley. Hurley joins a
long line of tough mentor/trainer characters in movies and is terrifically
played by Michel Keaton. Keaton’s skill at portraying so well such diverse
characters as those in Birdman (2014),
The Founder (2017), and American Assassin is truly impressive.
Mitch manages to complete the training and becomes part of
an Orion mission to foil a plot emanating from Iran and directed at Israel and
the U.S. Navy. The team’s efforts take it from Warsaw to Istanbul to Rome and
involve combating turncoats as well as terrorists.
These adventures are somewhat generic but, as mentioned,
diverting enough, and the performances are adequate—in Keaton’s case, as
mentioned, excellent. One welcome aspect of the plot is that Islamists and
Iranians are specifically designated as the evildoers rather than some shadowy
organization or super-villain as in the Bond flicks or the CIA itself as in the
Bourne franchise.
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