The American (DVD, 2010)

To begin, the first reviewer said that this movie would not be suitable to watch with pre-teens or younger because of the nudity.

To anyone reading this review I ask this question - should pre-teens be watching any R rated movie? Or are movies with nudity bad for pre-teens, but movies with endless streams of swear words and/or people shooting and killing each other are ok?

But onto the movie.
From my personal experience of the average American DVD viewer, this movie will not be appreciated by many. 'The American' is not a fast, action packed thriller, it's slow and subtle and demands your attention.
The movie is beautifully filmed in Sweden and Italy; the European flavor continues with a Dutch director; Dutch, Italian, Finnish and Belgian actors.

The movie is loosely based on a novel by Martin Booth called 'A Very Private Gentleeman'. That title perhaps gives a little more insight into the nature of this movie. Also perhaps there are too many unanswered questions in this movie to satisfy some people. Some will call it tedious and boring, but I found far more rewarding than (for example) the Jason Bourne movies.

The American is an acquired taste, thats for sure. Its a different movie than most action spy films that are going 100% of the time at 100 miles per hour. The American brings this over done genre back down to a human root. That having the knowledge and skills of a killer don't make you a badass, they make you unable to sleep, or to enjoy the things you want to. You are confined to living a trail of lies that accomplish a small mission that seems meaningless and disgusting. Every noice, every rustle could be the sound of youre death. Its not a perfect movie, and at times you'll want more details. But its not about the plot, its about the character jack, Clooney is haunting in a deep and subtle way. 4/5 Good

It was good, but not the action packed film the previews suggested that it was going to be. But I'd say it was a much more accurate portray of a spy than you get from most films. This one of an aging operator that has been targeted by some people he pissed off earlier in his career while dealing with his own emotional problems and trying to find love and happiness while also trying to stay alive with a few nice twists of paranoia. I liked this film a lot more after the second time I saw it, than I did after the first time. My only real complaint is the ending which while I'm sure that this was the unanswered effect that the film maker was going for. I would have liked to have had a definitive ending to it one way or another.
So I'm only going to give this film 3 stars because it masquerades in the previews as an action film and its much more of an emotional drama film, and of course the ending, that left me looking at the screen as it went to credits and I couldn't but to shout at it "HEY!"

I thought this would be an action/spy movie, but there was very little action. The movie was so slow, with not a lot of dialogue, or characters.

There were several sex scenes, with total nudity, so this would not be a movie to watch with the pre-teens or younger.

The only, and I mean the only, good thing about thing about this movie was the incredibly gorgeous Italian city where the movie was made. The scenery was beautiful.

Can't believe George Clooney lowered his standards to make this movie. Terrible script,terrible directing. Kind of reminds me of the old Spaghetti Westerns. Could have done without the explicit sex scenes.