The American, starring George Clooney (and some Italian actors nobody has ever heard of), starts off promisingly enough with Clooney and his girlfriend in a remote cabin in Sweden surrounded by a pristine snow scape. The two are obviously in love and enjoying every moment together and are happily walking in the wilderness when they spot footprints in the snow. "Get down!", Clooney yells, moments before bullets whiz by them. Clooney pulls a pistol from his pocket and quickly dispatches the would be assassin. He turns to his girlfriend and tells her to go back to the cabin and call the police, when she turns and has taken only a couple of steps, Clooney shoots her in the back and kills her. He then finds a second gunman, kills him and steals his car and drives away. I was very interested 10 minutes in, who was this guy? Why are people trying to kill him? Why did he shoot his girlfriend? What can possibly happen next? Unfortunately after the next two hours the only one of those questions I can answer is the last, and the answer is, not much.
For the next two hours the film alternates between Clooney doing push ups/pull ups/sit-ups, having sex with an Italian prostitute, some gunsmithing, and having dinner with a priest. He does get shot at again by some guy that he kills (we still have no idea why people are trying to kill him and this is 2/3 of the way through the film, and we never do find out so don't hold your breath while watching) but he's back to his push ups and prostitute soon thereafter so don't worry. I kept watching the film, waiting, hoping for some kind of payoff but in the end he decides to run away with the prostitute and get out of the gunsmithing/assassination business but bleeds to death from a gunshot wound from a shootout ( I use the term loosely as only three bullets are fired) with the film's antagonist (don't worry about who he is it won't help explain anything, he ends up dead, just leave it at that) just as he pulls into view of her then the credits roll.
The American is very, very boring and no amount of scenic, on-location European village shots, nor foreign language dialogue, nor hot Italian prostitutes can change that simple fact.
For the next two hours the film alternates between Clooney doing push ups/pull ups/sit-ups, having sex with an Italian prostitute, some gunsmithing, and having dinner with a priest. He does get shot at again by some guy that he kills (we still have no idea why people are trying to kill him and this is 2/3 of the way through the film, and we never do find out so don't hold your breath while watching) but he's back to his push ups and prostitute soon thereafter so don't worry. I kept watching the film, waiting, hoping for some kind of payoff but in the end he decides to run away with the prostitute and get out of the gunsmithing/assassination business but bleeds to death from a gunshot wound from a shootout ( I use the term loosely as only three bullets are fired) with the film's antagonist (don't worry about who he is it won't help explain anything, he ends up dead, just leave it at that) just as he pulls into view of her then the credits roll.
The American is very, very boring and no amount of scenic, on-location European village shots, nor foreign language dialogue, nor hot Italian prostitutes can change that simple fact.