The American Forum

• Add

I kind of knew this was going to happen, but I'm still a little disappointed: 
 

If you haven't heard already, the George Clooney film "The American" has the dubious distinction of being the No. 1 movie at the box office this weekend despite having received an abysmal grade of D minus from CinemaScore, which tracks the reaction of rank-and-file moviegoers to the latest films. Even worse, as my colleague Ben Fritz noted in his box-office report, the film's target audience -- adults older than 25, who made up 88% of the audience, gave it an F.

Is anyone surprised? I hesitate to call this movie audience-unfriendly, but it definitely seemed like the kind of movie that should've had a smaller budget and an arthouse release. This just isn't the kind of movies that most people are going to latch onto.

I haven't seen it, though I've read a lot about it being deceptively slow-paced and having minimal action sequences. People see George Clooney with a gun and a suit and think they're in for a slam-bang action flick, and frankly I can't really blame them. I would've believed it too had I not read the Rolling Stone review beforehand.

Movie critics in the states don't get atmosphere, a majority of them think that every thriller should be fast paced and focus on dialog & action. The American shows that you can have a thrilling movie that is slow paced methodical that focuses on atmosphere.

I didn't expect many people to love this movie but I didn't think it would get this much hate either.

This movie is made for people that really love movies.  I mean, really love them to death.  All kinds of movies too; action, romance, foreign, comedy.  I think it's nice to see a movie for those people given such a wide release.  Usually these movies need to be tracked down, this time, the movie tracked us down.

@thabigred:  These aren't critics, really; these are the people that they interview on the way out of the theater to see what they thought of it. It's still (barely) positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

 @Rorie:  Not surprised at all, clearly this movie got a wide release because of Clooney power, which I admit is really enticing.  I think the average Clooney-goer doesn't expect something this subtle and quiet.
 
On the other hand, the average art-house movie dude could easily criticize the fact that this movie doesn't really have much to it under the great visuals and the performances.  I personally liked it a lot as a character study, but there was a serious lack of depth to the story.
 
Also, did anyone else get annoyed at the one scene when Clooney is talking to the Priest in the courtyard, and there was a goddamn bug flying around right in front of the camera?  Maybe it was just me.

Parts of this is deserved. It was marketed as a thriller, and audiences are disappointed.

@Feser:  To their credit, the marketers did exactly what they were paid to do: get the most asses in the seats the first weekend that they possibly could. If they have to fudge a little bit to do so, I doubt they'll be crying too much. :) I think the article has a good point that between stuff like this and The Good German, Clooney is making a reputation for himself as an actor's actor, but eventually that might backfire on him if his audiences associate him with arty stuff instead of the action movies they expect from him. I'm sure the thought keeps him up at night as he sleeps on a stack of thousand dollar bills with his beautiful girlfriend.

@Rorie:
I feel so bad for Clooney and his good looks and his million awards and . . . 
 
I justt wrote a nice argument about how the trailer could have been Clooney talking mysteriously under his breath and it still could have worked real well. Then I watched the trailer and that's pretty much what it was.

Maybe something that threw people off is the timing of this release.  It seems like if The American came out in a few months, say November, people would naturally expect a slower, more thoughtful thriller than one that comes out near the last gasp of Blockbuster time.
 
Also, George Clooney makes people expect an action movie?  What?!?...
 
Alls I remember is that Seth Gecko shot some dudes, Batman had nippies, and then George Clooney made a ton of great, slow-burn, tense films.  Even in the wonderful Oceans movies, there's hardly any real action to speak of.  The article proposes that asses were put into seats partially thanks to the, "slick TV spots, which sold the picture as a taut, "Michael Clayton"-style thriller."  Aside from
, Michael Clayton consisted of people talking to each other, and the waling around. Maybe it's a testament to Clooney's acting chops, that he can make people remember tense, crazy action, where really there wasn't any.

I feel like if the movie would have been appreciated more if it wasn't mis-advertised. It's like expecting ice cream but you end up getting apple pie. They're both good, but you wanted fucking ice cream.

 
  @Rorie said:

" @Feser:   I'm sure the thought keeps him up at night as he sleeps on a stack of thousand dollar bills with his beautiful girlfriend. "

 
     
Relevant part starts around 3 min.

@Rorie:  While in my eyes its a true tragedy that Hollywood can't put out slow, methodical throwback movies anymore because audiences need constant explosions to be entertained but I'm not surprised at all that people didn't like it. Audiences today have ADD. They need movies like this, this, and fucking  this (see box office results) to be entertained or else they start texting and talking out loud in the middle of the movie. It is truly a sad day for audiences everywhere. I do, however, partly blame marketing for misleading people into thinking it was an action movie, but it wasn't like it was a bad movie. It was just too intellectual for most audiences and today slow, and intellectual=bad and HOLY CRAP DER R EXPLSIONS ON DA SCREEN GUIZE=hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.
 
 
/rant

I think it's really funny that the European trailers look and feel more "honest" than all of the trailers in the United States:
 

@Rorie said:

" @thabigred:  These aren't critics, really; these are the people that they interview on the way out of the theater to see what they thought of it. It's still (barely) positive on Rotten Tomatoes. "

Well I assumed it was critics, I only skimmed the article the first time. If people are stupid enough to think the trailer is indicative of the movie than they should be instore for many more disappointing experiences. Also if LA Times polled people in LA than I am not surprised, which I assume that they did, people are notorious in LA(at least from my experience) for being highly critical of everything.

@gangly said:

" Maybe something that threw people off is the timing of this release.  It seems like if The American came out in a few months, say November, people would naturally expect a slower, more thoughtful thriller than one that comes out near the last gasp of Blockbuster time.
 
Also, George Clooney makes people expect an action movie?  What?!?...
 
Alls I remember is that Seth Gecko shot some dudes, Batman had nippies, and then George Clooney made a ton of great, slow-burn, tense films.  Even in the wonderful Oceans movies, there's hardly any real action to speak of.  The article proposes that asses were put into seats partially thanks to the, "slick TV spots, which sold the picture as a taut, "Michael Clayton"-style thriller."  Aside from

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

a car blowing up

, Michael Clayton consisted of people talking to each other, and the waling around. Maybe it's a testament to Clooney's acting chops, that he can make people remember tense, crazy action, where really there wasn't any. "

All this negativity is still getting my hyped for this movie, it makes me all the more interested about what the film is and what I will get from it. Michael Clayton is one of my all time favourite thrillers and a big part of that was that I wasn't clear what the film was about and was immensely surprised by how gripping it was.  I had no expectations so it consequently blew me away.  I think if Joe Popcorn was expecting The American to be Clooney as James Bond then of course they are going to feel disappointed.  But hey Joe, Transformers 3 will be here soon.

@Rorie: I watched this and it made me think about this subject more: 
    Basically the point of the talk was that you can't trust what people say when they are polled because they fucking lie. So yeah, I wouldn't take that article to serious.

Have you seen the one bad review for Machete up on Rotten Tomatoes? He says the actors in the film "look like losers". LE SIGH

Is George Clooney known as an action star? The only action movies I can recall seeing him in are the Batman movies and Three Kings. When I think George Clooney I think of dramas. So I find it surprising that other people found the movie surprisingly action-less.