"The American" Movie Trailer Review

Movie Trailer Review

"The American"

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

The trailer for "The American" is about as mysterious as its main character. It follows an assassin by the name of Jack. Like so many elder assassins in film, he's ready to get out of the business and live his life away from death. Of course, he has one last job before he can retire, but things go out of control when he takes a risk and decides to embrace human connection in the midst of his work.

George Clooney portrays Jack, and right there you know the film's got great potential. 2009 was a great year for Clooney, with "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Up in the Air" being among the best films of the year and "Men Who Stare at Goats," while the reaction being generally ambivalent, gave us a really funny performance from him.

"The American" brings him back into "Syriana" and "Michael Clayton" territory, giving us another enigmatic and intriguing Clooney character that combines the charmer we know from his comedies and the dangerous man we've seen from his dramas and action films.

The trailer doesn't give us much to work with, but you can hear the quiet melancholy in Clooney's voice, and brief images of the exotic locales in which the film takes place and of bullets flying between motorcycles make for quite an easy sell. Anton Corbijn, who made his debut with his Ian Curtis biopic "Control," directs, and despite the quick images his distinct style is definitely noticeable.

Clooney has been almost flawlessly consistent this past decade, so it wouldn't be a stretch to expect this to be one of the best films of the Summer.


"The American" comes out September 1, 2010. Trailer is below. Thoughts?