American Assassin

First Hit:  Mildly entertaining.

The story begins with Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) and Katrina (Charlotte Vega) frolicking in the water in an undisclosed foreign location. They are in love and, with his phone, he’s videotaping their time together which concludes with him asking her for her hand in marriage. She accepts and he goes to the beach bar to get them drinks to celebrate when a group of terrorists start shooting everyone on the beach. Mitch gets hit with two slugs and Katrina is shot dead.

The film moves forward eighteen months and Mitch has recovered and he’s clearly aiming for revenge because he’s taking mixed martial arts lessons, shooting lessons and has mastered Arabic because he’s communicating with ISIS operatives. He’s trying to get close to the people who killed his fiancé so that he can kill them, specifically Adnan Al-Mansur (Shahid Ahmed). He plans to infiltrate their organization by pretending to be a new western recruit, get close and kill him and everyone in that cell.

His plan gets foiled because he’s being watched by the CIA who find him fascinating and possibly someone they want on their team. Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) recruits him to be taught by a black ops trainer Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton).

Typical issues arise as the young guy with guts and a clear personal mission tries to learn and be better than the grizzled veteran. Some of these scenes are rather good. As Hurley gets Rapp ready to become an operative, Kennedy learns that an old CIA operative, who goes by the name Ghost (Taylor Kitsch), has a stolen a small atomic device. This part of the story is not very well done, because the story wants the audience to believe that it is radical Iranian’s who are going to get the bomb, but there are too many hints to the contrary.

Because Ghost felt that Hurley left him to die, he wants to get back at Hurley by blowing up the sixth fleet.

Some of the bomb effects were interesting, as were some of the close fighting action that the agents get into. However, the film was predictable.

O’Brien was strong enough to make his character work. He used his intensity well. Lathan was very good as the CIA Deputy Director. Keaton was both strong and mediocre. I think the mediocre part was more of a scripting issue than Keaton’s fault. Keaton can be an excellent antagonist and more could have been done with this role. Shiva Negar as the in-country Iranian CIA agent Annika, was excellent. Kitsch was solid as the vengeful rogue agent. Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz all participated in creating the screenplay. This might have been the problem, too many cooks. Michael Cuesta directed this and the strengths were the fight scenes, which were well choreographed along with the interaction between Annika and Rapp were great.

Overall:  This could have been more exciting with more clarity in the story and it wasn’t.

The Maze Runner

First Hit:  Possibilities existed but were wasted in a poorly written script with a lack of background to give the story context.

I get why the pre-teens and teenagers in the audience clapped at the end of the showing I attended. There was enough there that would appeal to a younger audience.

Young attractive actors, fighting against an unknown master, fear of the unknown, and kids their age being left to fend for themselves. There was a “Lord of the Flies” sense about it, yet where Lord focused on change and how it happens, here we have little substance and even less character development.

However, what I really struggled with was context. Even at the end when you get some context, and there wasn’t enough good information that would make me want to see the sequel (pointedly announced by the storyline). There is little information to make this story intellectually interesting and it doesn’t develop much in the way of curiosity.

There are moments where I could have been attentive but it faded away as lightweight fare with a weak script. From a filming standpoint, it also could have been more interesting by giving more in-depth views of the square area they lived in and I would have enjoyed more maze scenes where the boys were figuring out the maze.

Dylan O’Brien (as Thomas) was a reasonable main character but the script and story wasn’t there for development. Aml Ameen (as Alby) was the leader of this community because he was the first person sent to the area and as such commanded respect. He carried this load fairly well. Ki Hong Lee (as a runner) was OK, but again I think the story line was too weak to support good acting. Blake Cooper (as the youngish Chuck) was one of the better characters in the entire film – there was a realness to him that made it work. Thomas Brodie-Sangster (as Newt) was good, but again more could have been done to create a character. Will Poulter (as Gally) was the most dynamic person in the film but his role was predictable. Lastly, Kaya Scodelario (as Teresa) - the only girl, had a limited role and was OK. She brought some fun to the film at her arrival. Noah Oppenheim and Grant Pierce Myers wrote this poorly conceived and executed script. Wes Ball did a poor job of directing this poorly imagined film.

Overall:  It was bored most of the time although there were moments of interest when the maze was featured.

The Internship

First Hit:  Moderately funny scenes and the real truth is the difficult story about finding jobs for anyone at any age.

When John Goodman fires Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) from their sales jobs and then tells them that they were sales “grinders”, were facing a cruel world out there, and that their prospects were minimal the film's set-up is made.

There is another segment where one of Team Lyle's members' states that more than half of today’s college graduates will not get a job that uses their education when they graduate. I’ve been on the job market as a 30, 40, and 50 year old person and I know just how hard it is. The older you get the harder it is, especially in a technology world. When 100 kids show up to Google for a summer internship in the hopes of 6 of them securing jobs at Google, it tells a huge story.

The story is about how two old salespeople use their skills at bringing people together so that the team can win. They learn who has what skills and how to support each other and help them grow. The downside, as I’ve stated before in other reviews, Vaughn is Vaughn no matter what role he takes. He’s got one character and it just shows up in different films so this film becomes predictable very early on.

Wilson, like Vaughn, plays the same character in most of his roles, although he can be more subtle in his acting. With these two as the main stars, the film lacks surprises and, for the most part, does not reveal its characters in interesting ways. If the film focused more on the second level actors it may have been more interesting. Regardless, there are funny, sad, and heartfelt moments which make it watchable.

Vaughn is just that, Vince Vaughn, no more or less. Wilson is the same thing, no surprises, and a knowable character. Nothing very interesting about these people or their characters. Rose Byrne (playing Diana) was OK in a minimal role. Aasif Mandvi (playing Mr. Chetty) was OK and a bit stereotypical. Max Minghella (playing a jerk named Graham) was good and showed the kind of arrogance this role called for. Josh Brenner (playing Lyle) was believable as a computer nerd – which he does on some movie theater promos. Dylan O’Brien as Stuart was good as the always negative to be cool guy. Tiya Sicar (as Neha, the only female on this team) was really good and deserved more script time. Tobit Raphael (as Yo Yo Santos) was wonderful as the oppressed by his strong mom nerd. He portrayed the fear and his change to finding his voice, sort of speak, perfectly. Vaughn and Jared Stern wrote this occasionally funny and adequate script but I do think there was more available for this film. Shawn Levy directed this film. There were nice moments and staging but other times it felt pressed and too made up.

Overall:  A “On Demand” film for sure and enjoyable on a Sunday afternoon or evening.