Based on the books by Vince Flynn (RIP), a series I read from book one until the authors death. Yes, to use a cliche, the book(s) was better. This movie has all the right ingredients to be a first class thriller that did the book justice, but those ingredients never fully come together to make a great movie. It's not a bad movie, but the casting for the main characters is weak, no character development to speak of, plot holes and or a few too many eye rolling moments for me, and you end up with something on par with the other series based on a popular books, the Bourne series. Not bad movies, just not great movies. Realistic violence that add to a movie is fine, but it seems the new trend is simply gratuitous violence to the point it just detracts from the movie. American Assassin is sort of Bourne meets Wick, and like them, predictable all the way with blood and brain parts, etc too often. If you wanna get your action movie on, American Assassin is fun to watch and visually striking, but you wont be thinking about it the next day. I will say the trailer is great and makes it seem like it will be a far better movie. B-
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