![Green Products: Perspectives on Innovation and Adoption](/uploads/profile_image/355/334c54fd-6993-4784-9c12-bda6c100a355.jpg?m=1522341196)
Green Products: Perspectives on Innovation and Adoption
Joao Neiva de Figueiredo and Mauro F. Guillen
Book
Sharing successful examples of sustainable products from around the world, Green Products:...
![Communicative Competence, Classroom Interaction, and Educational Equity: The Selected Works of Courtney B. Cazden](/uploads/profile_image/884/92eda344-544f-40ba-b937-8b692f210884.jpg?m=1522355090)
Communicative Competence, Classroom Interaction, and Educational Equity: The Selected Works of Courtney B. Cazden
Book
In the World Library of Educationalists, international scholars themselves compile career-long...
![40x40](/uploads/profile_image/7b9/921f4b6c-268e-4342-a909-b8843f8557b9.jpg?m=1583101466)
JT (287 KP) rated The Intruder (2019) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
Annie (Meagan Good) and Scott ( Michael Ealy) think that they have found their dream home, away from the concrete jungle of the city with an idyllic setting in which to start a family. Step in Charlie (Dennis Quaid), a kind hearted widower who is selling in order to start a new life with his daughter in Florida – or so it would seem, as we know, looks can be deceiving.
Dennis Quaid nails the disturbed seller turned psycho
The film has been battered with reviews saying that it forgoes plot in favour of setting up a good jump scare, but do you know what? I don’t mind that.
I’ve always been a sucker for this type of genre and this one is no different. There are the obvious plot holes, some laughable, like how come it takes Annie so long to realise that Charlie has psychotic tendencies, despite Scott practically spelling it out for her? Or the fact that everyone seems to be drawn to a particular linen closet. It moves along enough to keep you entertained with Quaid giving a good account of himself and clearly having fun.
Director (Deon Taylor) seems inspired by classic home invasion thrillers but offers nothing new that we won’t have already seen before – you can just throw this one onto the pile with all the rest.
![Henry VI Part Two](/uploads/profile_image/386/6b36d23c-f740-41f8-b5ba-fcc8403ed386.jpg?m=1522327429)
Henry VI Part Two
Stanley W. Wells, William Shakespeare and Michael Taylor
Book
The second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the...
![National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera: Myths Reconsidered](/uploads/profile_image/acb/834561fb-dca4-46b6-9aea-5f68c1437acb.jpg?m=1522341586)
National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera: Myths Reconsidered
Book
Opera has been performed in Australia for more than two hundred years, yet none of the operas...
![The New Book of Snobs: A Definitive Guide to Modern Snobbery](/uploads/profile_image/928/493b59a4-13a0-45d3-ae56-f06787223928.jpg?m=1522322877)
The New Book of Snobs: A Definitive Guide to Modern Snobbery
Book
'Hugely enjoyable' AN Wilson, Sunday Times 'Thoughtful, entertaining and enjoyable' Michael Gove,...
![Directing the Documentary](/uploads/profile_image/b49/5162a458-fa8e-43ec-a77c-014aec34cb49.jpg?m=1522326865)
Directing the Documentary
Book
Directing the Documentary, Sixth Edition is the definitive book on the form, offering time-tested...
![40x40](/uploads/profile_image/896/3851ea31-c6d9-45ab-92ff-a753be852896.jpg?m=1560165249)
Movie Metropolis (309 KP) rated American Assassin (2017) in Movies
Jun 10, 2019
Last year’s diabolical London Has Fallen inexplicably took over $200million at the box office and the better-received Unlocked also performed well commercially. All of this in spite of the constant threat posed by terrorism across the globe.
Now, there’s a new kid on the block. American Assassin. But does this film based on the novel of the same name do enough to be different?
When Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) takes CIA black ops recruit Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) under his wing, they receive an assignment to investigate a wave of random attacks on both military and civilian targets. After discovering a pattern of violence, Hurley and Rapp join forces with a lethal Turkish agent to stop a mysterious operative who wants to start a global war.
Michael Cuesta’s film is propped up by a nicely shot opening in which Dylan O’Brien’s Mitch comes up against Islamic terrorists while on holiday with his fiancé. Naturally, she’s brutally murdered and it becomes Mitch’s life-ambition to hunt down terrorist cells across the world.
Yes, you heard me right. That’s the plot. Ridiculous in every way and frankly, a little boring, American Assassin is a poor excuse for a film riddled with dreadful dialogue, phoned-in performances and uninspiring camerawork.
What makes it worse is that Maze Runner rising star Dylan O’Brien thought it would be a good idea to helm such a vehicle. He performs well but feels at odds with the film’s dark tone and is in serious danger of doing a post-Abduction Taylor Lautner and tanking his promising career. Michael Keaton’s bizarre effort here is the polar opposite of his genuinely menacing turn in Spider-Man: Homecoming only two months ago.
The rest of the cast might as well be made of cardboard they’re that uninteresting and while globe-trotting should evoke some visual joy, the scenery feels flat, hampered by a dull colour palette and the fact it’s been done to death already.
As American Assassin steamrolls to a 70s-esque Bond finale, we’re subjected to some torturous CGI, though Cuesta does well to ramp up the tension a little, but it’s the subject matter once again that proves a sticking point.
In a world where our fears of urban terrorism are greater than ever, should we be classing films like this as ‘entertainment’? Take the opening sequence for example, as nicely choreographed as it is, the parallels to the dreadful Tunisian beach attack of 2015 linger in the back of my mind and I find it all very much in poor taste.
Overall, American Assassin is yet another addition to the already overstuffed terrorism thriller genre that adds absolutely nothing new. The performances are dull, the story is flat and the cinematography is uninspired. Poor Dylan O’Brien left the Maze for this?
https://moviemetropolis.net/2017/09/15/american-assassin-review/
![Stig of the Dump](/uploads/profile_image/d88/0ca2f33d-e729-4754-a037-f0a49b50bd88.jpg?m=1522327742)
Stig of the Dump
Clive King and Edward Ardizzone
Book
A Puffin Book - stories that last a lifetime. Puffin Modern Classics are relaunched under a new...
![Darwin](/uploads/profile_image/57f/1d6d953f-29b5-4963-92bb-789d9659757f.jpg?m=1522338225)
Darwin
Charles Darwin and Philip Appleman
Book
The impact of Charles Darwin's work on Western civilization has been broad and deep. As much as...