The American and The Expendables

Every now and then George Clooney likes to remind us movie goers, in addition to making blockbuster crappy movies like his bread and butter the Ocean movies, he is amply capable of making pretentious artsy movies that are seemingly deep but are actually just interminably drab and weary.  The American is one of those.  The only saving grace is the movie has quite a few nude scenes, a stark contrast to your regular nude-less American movies, I think that's the only good European touch The American has to offer, which nevertheless could not possibly salvage the movie from its utter slow paced bore.  Since I am a fan of anal retentiveness, so I sort of enjoy Clooney's character Mr. Butterfly's (what a pretentious name) demonstrably encyclopedic knowledge of fire arms and hands-on experience--believe it or not, his character is able to fabricate a rifle silencer out of parts from a tiny chop shop in a god forsaken little Italian town.  Is he a genius or what?

The Expendables is the polar opposite of The American.  The Expendables is either a wet dream come true or a nightmare of a movie--aging action heroes join force to fight bad guys.  Maybe I have outgrown action movies, I find the story incredibly tired and the action scenes pretty forgettable.  Mickey Rourke probably has it the easiest.  He doesn't even need to fight, all he does is mumbling and he calls that acting.