New DVD Review-The American

I was fortunate enough to watch The American with tempered action expectations. When the preview came out for the film, it was advertised as George Clooney's answer to Jason Bourne or Ethan Hunt. However I had heard enough people say after seeing it that there is very little action. I was still intrigued because I find that when Clooney makes serious movies, they can be terrific even with little to no action (Syriana). Watching The American, I found it to be a very unique and intriguing movie. This was The Bourne Identity for the older crowd (not as good still as the Bourne Trilogy though). There are only 3 scenes of action and all are rather quick and realistic, no diving over tables with two pistols John Woo style and no Clooney facing off against large groups of villains. But its whats in between that's so intriguing. As the "hero" of the movie you would not expect Clooney's character to do some of the things he does to innocent parties. The cinematography is phenomenal and its hard to breath during the last 30 minutes of the film. Now having said all this, Diomedes nailed it on the head in his review when he said there are a lot of shots of Clooney staring. The film at some points tries too hard to be insightful. I also never really felt the love story in the film was believable. The hooker with a heart of gold story has been done too many times to make it matter here. I rated The American with 3 stars of 5. There is a lot more they could have done, but I still felt the film was surprisingly refreshing. Our next new DVD review will be Machete, then I'll be back with Easy A after that. If you haven't checked out Diomedes' opinion on The American, please scroll farther down for a different take on the film.
-Maximus