George Clooney “Americans” Violante Placido Into A Bad Movie
by Nicholas Robinson
Alone among assassins, Jack (George Clooney) is a master craftsman. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact, Pavel (Johan Leysen) that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten), is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues romance with local woman Clara (Violante Placido). But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate. – IMDB.com
When I saw the trailer for this movie a few months ago, I could not wait for it to come out. Unfortunately I missed it at the theatre so I was 1st in line at the rental store today to rent it and I got home popped it in and was utterly disappointed. The story was boring, the acting was sub-par, the action was slow and poorly paced, but the music was good.
The story in this movie was boring and I mean B-O-R–I-N-G. It was lacking in a full plot, was poorly paced with what plot it had and contained a lot of completely useless scenes. Also, the way they developed the connection between Jack and Clara was horrible. A guy goes to a whorehouse, has sex with a girl once and suddenly wants no other woman??? It just makes no sense. The only relationship that made sense in the movie was the one between Jack and his contact due to the actions taken in the movie (I don’t want to spoil anything).
The acting in this movie was truly sub-par. None of the performances (apart from Johan Leysen’s) was convincing at all. It felt like the entire cast just went in and read lines from a script instead of becoming the character, living the character and giving out a great performance. John Leysen’s performance was only convincing because all his character was, was a businessman and that’s all the performance needed.
The action in this movie was slow and poorly paced. In fact it can barely be called action. I understand that it can be deemed as “realistic” spy chase and action scenes but that doesn’t mean I want it in an assassin-themed movie. I want headshots, awesome chase scenes, meaningful relationships and people shooting people not carefully, tactically chosen plans of action. Those are boring. Efficient, but boring. On a happy note, the music in this movie was very good. In fact, for quite a bit of the movie, I would just close my eyes and listen to the music and give myself a reason to keep watching.
Overall, it is a boring movie with bad acting and good music
IMDB says 6.6/10
RT says 65%
I say 2.5/10
P.S. If you don’t get the joke in THIS title: The Unofficial official American sex position is “Missionary” and George Clooney has sex with Violante Placido several times in the movie.
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