American Assassin

This derivative albeit timely political thriller follows covert U.S. operatives zeroing in on terrorist factions and renegade mercenaries. The story begins on the Spanish island of Ibiza, where Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) proposes to his blonde, bikini-clad girlfriend, Katrina (Charlotte Vega). She accepts, but their idyllic vacation ends abruptly in a bloodbath when Katrina is killed, along with other beachgoers, by Uzi-toting Muslim terrorists from a Libyan group under Adnan Al-Mansur (Shahid Ahmed). Determined to avenge Katrina's murder by infiltrating Al-Mansur's Tripoli-based cell, traumatized Rapp quits his graduate studies to buff up and learn marksmanship, martial arts, and Arabic, which attracts attention from U.S. intelligence. Although the CIA director (David Suchet) has his doubts about channeling Rapp's unbridled thirst for revenge, the counterintelligence chief (Sanaa Lathan) views him as an ideal assassin, so Rapp is sent off to be trained by grizzled, ex-Navy SEAL Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) at a no-nonsense boot camp in Virginia. When Rapp goes into the field to track down stolen weapons-grade plutonium, he's accompanied by another trainee, Victor (Scott Adkins), and a Turkish agent, Annika (Shiva Negar), and they eventually face a former American agent turned rogue mercenary (Taylor Kitsch) dubbed Ghost, who is brokering a plutonium-239 deal in Poland. Based on a series of pulp novels by the late Vince Flynn, and directed by Michael Cuesta, this is a formulaic, cliché-riddled film. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include an “Alamo Drafthouse Q&A” (26 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Transfer of Power: Hurley and Ghost” (14 min.), “Weaponized: Training and Stunts” (12 min.), “Target Acquired: Creating” (10 min.), “Finding Mitch Rapp: Dylan O'Brien” (10 min.), and “In the Field: On Location” (10 min.), as well as bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package—on the Blu-ray edition—for this unremarkable thriller.] (S. Granger)