The American Forum

• Add

So, some friends and I went to the theater tonight to see Machete, walked into the wrong screen, and ended up just staying in there to watch The American because we're a little lazy and all kind've film geeks. I actually really enjoyed it, definitely slow, but beautifully shot and very well acted. For a mistake, it was pretty darn fun. :)

I appreciated this movie more than I thought I would. I like slow movies though so yeah. Definitely analogous to  Le Samurai which if you haven't seen that movie, it's on streaming and Yo you should go watch that.

I can definitely see that, gave me something of a Ronin (specifically Deniro's character) vibe as well. Very European feeling in general.

Just looking to the left there at the big red -17.5 million the movie is currently dealing with, your story is kind of sad because you enjoyed the movie but gave your money to Machete lol.  
:(
 
Anyway, maybe they could have marketed the movie better?  Because I think older women, such as my mom, like George Clooney, but not action flicks, so maybe if this movie was advertised as a slow moving character story and not just another movie about guns, it'd actually have an audience instead of being in the negatives.

They could have marketed it so much better, mostly just using the establishing shots of rural Italy, and interestingly enough, I was in theater with a number of old ladies(my first clue I was in the wrong place XD  ) and they were aghast for much of the movie due to the (not totally unwelcome) nudity that continued to show up. But yeah, the bright red loss number is a bit of a bummer.

What I don't understand is that I normally don't like Clooney. I mean I don't hate him but he is one of those actors that just overused. I loved him in this movie though.

He was a decidedly non-Clooney-esque character in this movie. Not very charismatic, nor very likeable, just a pretty scarred guy trying to figure out what he wants his legacy to be. The ladies still swoon for him, but you feel like it's less because he's George Clooney and more because of the character he plays. I'm normally pretty ambivalent on Clooney, the first 20 minutes of Ocean's 11 I still contend are some of the coolest scenes ever shot on film, but I'm with you, not a huge fan, but a pretty great actor.

To me it almost felt like it was a European movie starring George Clooney.  This movie is totally not for American audiences at all, and the marketing team pretty much had to trick people into seeing it with the trailer.  I thought it was a pretty good movie, though I doubt I will ever sit down and see it again.  It was slow and it built a lot of tension throughout, but seeing it again and knowing what will happen really ruins all of that.  I think this is definately one of those movies you only see once.