People will probably crucify me for this but I prefer the original BOURNE IDENTITY with Richard Chamberlain.
I’ve come to dislike rotten tomatoes for various reasons over the years, but their summaries is one of the things I appreciate about their site:
As beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, The American is an unusually divisive spy thriller – and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney.
So essentially an arthouse neonoir with a possibly hipster flavor. Well, that can go either way, these kind of movies are completely unpredictable, I sometimes find them diverting enough, while at other times, I can’t stand them at all. It pretty much depends on their style, pacing and the degree to which they’re self-absorbed. Probably gonna squeeze it in between two DTV releases. My schedule is about to get busier soon, so it might take a while before I get around to viewing it, but I’ll probably give it a shot pretty soon so that I can strike it out of my watchlist, which is nearing almost 1000 flicks now.
I’m not defending it, or suggesting it’s a ‘must see’ hidden gem / masterpiece - but it’s no way a shoddy waste of time … if you’re in the mood for this type of show.
Calling something of this calibre ‘the worst thing I’ve ever seen’ … or ‘two hours I’ll never get back!’ or any of those other clichés that appear on IMDB reviews for almost any movie you can think of ! is nonsense.
My personal favourite for lack of originality … 'I’m giving this 1 out of 10 ‘cause I can’t give it a zero on IMDB’ 
Life’s too short to get that upset over a film … ?
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The American was quote ok. Entertaining and well enough made, but I expected more from it, to have some more complexity.
No, Aldo. It’s not nonsense. It’s my opinion. And I have seen thousands of movies.
I know, that was just to say I need to start whittling down the number of flicks I’ve got on my watchlist, as it’s getting preposterously bloated.
People superficially interested in cinema often tend to react in a hyperbolically negative manner and give way too many one-star ratings, I agree. They approach movies in a different manner than I or you do, thus their expectations are accordingly different and so are their ratings, which are reflective of their quasi-binary reactions. This is why the tone and elaboration of reviews is so important, as it denotes reviewer’s familiarity with the medium they’re critiquing and understanding thereof. If somebody bashes a film in the distinctively over-the-top, scathing manner, you can surmise that the reviewer in question might have different sensibilities than yours and most likely does not appraise movies the way you do. That doesn’t necessarily make them worse than you, it just means their outlook does not align with yours and you need to find another reviewer with a mindset and expectations similar to yours. Reviews are just supposed to be guidelines of sorts, not the be all and end all.
There is a flip side to this too. Some people also tend to sing praises of certain films because they happen to subscribe to some sort of agenda or promote ethical wholesomeness or social justice of some kind or come from this or that director and whatever. The thing is I don’t give a toss one way or another and if your movie happens to suck in other respects, the said aspects continue to be completely irrelevant regardless and won’t prevent me from taking a nice dump on the flick. Movies are either about art or entertainment, there is an element of both in a lot of motion pictures and there is quite a bit of overlap. Criteria of evaluation shouldn’t prioritize other components than artistic merits, technical assets and/or entertainment value. If you intend to make a statement with your movie aside from delivering the basic product, you’d better make sure your flick doesn’t suck on the fundamental, functional level because it may very well end up stultifying your message instead of elevating it. I won’t even delve into fanboyism and overall sycophancy in reviews, as it’s the most basic and self-explanatory form of intellectual dishonesty.
If the movie upsets me, then it upsets me and there is nothing to be done about it other than to trash it and move on. One thing to keep in mind is to clearly give expression to one’s preferences and expectations by explaining one’s position in a conspicuous and intellectually honest fashion. So in other words, people are entitled to diss whatever piece of art or entertainment they want, they just ought to explain why they feel about it the way they do. If The American is artsy in the way Xavier Dolan’s movies are, meaning très artistique et très elliptique, then yeah, I’m gonna trash it and move on. Life is too short to refrain from shitting on stuff you dislike, it might give you ulcers in the end. 
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Well, what do you know, I even reviewed The American. A quite lengthy review, at that. 3/10
Google translated (quite hilarious translation, btw)
The first 5 minutes are the best of The American. And the only good one. A number of dodgy types are tracking down a hit man in Sweden. He shoots his attackers, but also his girlfriend, who now knows too much. The professional killer is sent by a Pavel (his boss?) To Italy, to hide in a village there.
Once set in spaghetti land, the film turns into a dull misery, which is also extremely implausible. The first thing the main character does is to befriend the local priest. Moreover, he starts an affair with, literally, the first bde este whore he encounters. The sex scenes this yields are really not to peek at; a great painful affair. It would almost make you asexual.
Then Clooney reads in the newspaper that a whore killer is active in the village. You would say a plus one is two, but this fact is not discussed at all. Except that it makes Clooney’s little bit scared.
Either way, the killer is going to do one last job. On order he makes old car parts, no I don’t make that up, a weapon that can best be described as “a modified M15” (his words). In other words: All that ridiculous MacGyver nonsense was not needed for anything. After all, he could have just converted an M15.
Now it may seem like I’m mosquito sifting, but since The American’s entire screenplay fits on a yellow postit, those few sparse details immediately catch the eye. Because, Moses itches, how terribly bad this film is in telling a story. In fact, the plot is pretty much non-existent. All the better that it is cheese with holes, as far as that is concerned.
Anton Corbijn has managed to take beautiful pictures, but that is also the least you can expect from this photographer. For the rest, the Dutchman doesn’t bother at all in this thoughtful attempt to put a crime film in a European arthouse jacket.
Did I complain that nothing really happens in this movie? Except for a Clooney without a shirt doing push-ups. And there are digital butterflies to admire in a romantic intended scene. In the end, the title character, of whom we still only know his profession and nationality in the end, is killed. That should have happened immediately. Seed film first class.
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Frankly, I’d rather have dozens of scathing reviews on dedicated IMDb pages and people merrily and organically shitting on flicks they happen to dislike, otherwise you get the RT with their skewed ratings and circlejerks.
Never understood this one. Are people implying that they normally get their time back? How is it possible??
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I don’t think people mean that literally. Most of them anyway.
So you can rest assured that you will never see anything worse than this movie! 
No, there is always Tarantino. It so happens I hate movies in which nothing happens.
But, lovely condescending attitude you display. Keep it up!
I too was expressing my opinion … but that tone seems to suggest you’re getting upset by other people having a differing point of view. Maybe that’s a little condescending also ?
Great review, I found more entertaining than the film!
Well it’s a matter of expectations, you expect for something more with that “line up”, of course there are worst movies, but I would not compare with the Bourne movies they a have a different target viewer, and not made with the same artistic ambitions that clearly The American had, if I can say so in that way.
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They’re just hyperboles, they’re not meant to be taken literally. It’s like being bored to death, I assume people do not die while watching really boring movies and then miraculously come back to life the moment the flick is over.
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Of course, I agree - personally I had no high expectations, nor do I particularly care for this film - what was getting on my tit here was the over the top reaction to something relatively unimportant.
This hysterical teenage girl type reaction - ‘OMG … it’s like sooooooooooooo badddddd!!!’
On this site we as a group bless some real horrors and some regard them as their favourite films … that’s ok, when good is actually bad.
So why the double standard of stripping down all the flaws and imperfections, or things that one or two viewers were irritated by in a mainstream film ? … it’s the curse of the nerd fan who wants to be identified as ‘off the grid’ and edgy in their film appreciation.
It’s not that difficult to slag off Clooney and the Hollywood ‘A’ listers, I have little time for their product either … but keep it in perspective as to what is a really poor movie.
Now, if we’re talking ‘Tango & Cash’ !!! … ‘Jesus, Holy fuck … now that IS a bad movie!’
When it comes to critiques and my opinion I’m keeping it short and sweet. I nit pick if asked!!
And I have a section of my DVD rack should name THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS.
What would you rather watch COBRA or TANGO & CASH?
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