Culture Club: The American (15)

Readers review this week's big film

(AP)

"Who cares what the movie is about... it's George Clooney!!"

Karin Ficke Cook

"Terribly boring unfortunately. Had high hopes. Still, George was looking great. Fantastic first ten minutes, but sadly the rest dragged like a bad day."

Adam Matthews

"George Clooney has the kind of two-dimensional screen presence that suits his latest role as a contract killer. What goes on in the mind of a lone hitman? Not a huge amount, perhaps, beyond the precise planning and attention to meticulous detail that his job requires. Unfortunately, despite the swirling emotional depths reflected in the actor's dark brown eyes, we don't learn enough about his character to warrant a lot of interest in him. Why is he doing this thankless job, that alienates him from society, love and family? Without this and other basic background knowledge, it's hard to give a fig about him."

Jane Brown

"I would have gauged its star rating as two-and-a-half."

Johnthebean

"I thought it was boring. What was supposed to be mounting tension turned into boring scenes for me. He can get away with it because he's good-looking, but at some point his looks will be of no use."

Magda Amor

"Great movie with a Seventies feel to it!"

Thor Rønnow

"Did we watch the same movie? It is impossible to get more boring than this unless you watched No Country for Old Men!"

Tom Sitati

"A strangely quiet film. Felt like it was from another time. The 1970s? That said, I liked it. Did anyone think a couple of the scenes were very much The Day of the Jackal?"

Mike Barton

"I nearly didn't watch the end of this boring film. It is not a thriller! Yes, so there's a car chase, but there's less excitement than watching the paint dry on Jason Bourne's gun. It is all about George Clooney being moody and brooding and attractive to women and not about any story that goes anywhere at all, except to get Clooney into bed with a woman and into nice locations that are apparently near to one of his houses. If this was a Jason Bourne film, it would be called 'The Clooney Interminability'."

David baTchelor

"I went to see The American based on Anton Corbijn's previous work; I loved his photos and I thought his last film, Control, was brilliant. I'm not a massive fan of George Clooney, though. I think he's all style over substance and he always seems to be playing the same character. Sadly it's just another run-of-the-mill hitman movie. Very disappointing."

Edward tuckey

"There's much to like in The American, not least the fact that in true European film-making tradition, director Anton Corbijn takes his time. Unlike so many mainstream Hollywood movies intent on hardly giving a scene time to breathe, he allows the story to unfold in its own time and at its own pace. This works especially well for the always entertaining Clooney, whose performance as a troubled hitman with a past and OCD tendencies is never found wanting as against the backdrop of an idyllic Italian landscape he decides he wants out of his chosen profession."

Peter Davis

Next week in Culture Club: The Trip

Please email your views on the BBC2 comedy series, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on a restaurant-reviewing trek around the north of England, to cultureclub@independent.co.uk. The best will be published here next Thursday.