American Assassin 2017

     This film is based on a 2010 novel by Vince Flynn.  He has written fifteen novels set in the world of counter terrorism featuring Mitch Rapp as an American operative.   Mitch Rapp proposed to his girlfriend on a sunny beach.  Soon after, terrorists with machine guns kill her and many others on the beach.  Mitch was wounded in the leg and the shoulder but he physically survives.  His mental survival is another matter.  He starts training, lifting weights, going to the gun range, wrestling, doing anything to toughen his body and make his mind forget.  He wants revenge but he’s not sure how to go about getting it?  He lost his parents in a car accident when he was fourteen and now he’s twenty-three.  CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy is a black ops recruiter and enlists him.  He’s assigned to Stan Hurley for more training.  His first mission is as a team investigating a wave of random attacks on military and civilian targets.  This investigation leads to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent.  Their goal is to stop a mysterious operative determined to fire a nuclear weapon from the Middle East to Israel.  The intention is to start another war. 

     This film has a LOT of action but it has more brains than some other assassin films!!  Plans have been ongoing for years to translate one of the Mitch Rapp books into a film.  Rapp is supposed to follow the book and follow Hurley's plan but he takes a lot of initiative on his own to push further.  Sometimes he's called out for his actions, other times he obtains valuable intelligence information or eliminates a known target.    3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

112 min, Action direction by Michael Cuesta with Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, Charlotte Vega, Christopher Bomford, Chris Webster, Shahid Ahmed, Buster Reeves, Nick Cavaliere, Simon Connolly, Yousef ‘Joe’ Sweid, Joost Jannssen, Adam Collins, Revor White, Jeff Davis.

Note:  Imdb 6.2 out of 10, 34% critic 62% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Metacritic 45 out of 100 with 30 critics 5.7 out of 10 with 96 reviews, Amazon 3.8* out of 5* with 578 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Rome, Lazio, Italy; Croydon, West Kensington, Birmingham, London, England, UK; Valletta, Malta; Phuket, Thailand; Istanbul, Turkey.  The budget was $33 million with a gross of $66.6 million. The lead role of Mitch Rapp was offered to Chris Hemsworth but he had scheduling issues.  Gustavo Goulart was also invited according to rumors but not confirmed.  Other actors considered for were Gerard Butler, Colin Farrell and Matthew Fox.  Michael Keaton originally didn’t like his character but after reading the novel, he was on board for production.  Nominated for Taurus World Stunt Award for best fight with results pending.  There is another film with the same title from 2007.