American Star

Although the script is a bit formulaic and fairly predictable, the treat here is seeing McShane do what he does best, which is to project a lively mind ticking away under the placid surface of a snake-like visage.

Movies about professional assassins have an obligation to be juicier and more consistently fascinating than this.

This is an unusually intelligent and purposeful movie that doesn't say much but is full of feeling.

Despite an oddball taste for wide-angle lenses, the director, Gonzalo López-Gallego, can sustain a solid slow burn. Still, neither McShane nor the scenery can take the rust off the basic scenario.

As a hitman on an assignment in a far-flung locale, [McShane's] as good as he’s ever been, exuding a heft and danger that typifies this understated and affecting genre effort.

To hear it described, its premise sounds almost ridiculously predictable: Ian McShane as an old hitman on his last assignment. But the movie turns out to be a serious work that goes to unexpected places.

An action thriller, American Star is not. [...] What Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego (Apollo 18, The Hollow Point) has created is a far more subtle and introspective look into the toll violence and isolation can take on the human mind.

Director Gonzalo López-Gallego keeps the rest of his film compelling by smartly building every scene around McShane's craggy charisma and dry charm, all set against a nicely shot succession of beautiful Canarian locations.

Almost serene hitman drama is an incredible vessel for a vintage Ian McShane performance. Rich in texture and melancholy , but deliberately sparse in rollicking gun play

It works well as a character study of a mysterious hit man, who shows us his human side.