For anyone who has ever drafted him, you'll know the pain.

Michael Clayton is the new George Clooney lawyer "suspense" movie.  While it has some interesting dialogue, I thought it was boring and drawn out.  My main complaints were:

• Despite the smattering of interesting lines, even it gets a bit indulgent.  The film lingers on the various diatribes of its characters a bit too much, and they bypass clever on their way to being longwinded and repetitive.
• Where Bourne Ultimatum overused the gimmick of manic camera shakiness (much to Marc's chagrin), Michael Clayton latches on to a more sedate convention that made me roll my eyes at just about every scene.  At every scene change, you're subjected to at least 20 seconds of useless "scene setting."  I understand the need for this in general, but when you get stuff like a company investor video being repeated at least 5 times, or a phone ringing in the dark for 20 seconds, it just gets annoying.  This movie could have cut at least 15 minutes out and not lost a damn thing.
• Along with the above, there were too many scenes that weren't central to the story.  I guess the film is supposed to be about the title character, but honestly I'd rather it be about the case/coverup.  Michael Clayton's gambling and investment problems (and his amazingly boring loan shark) are not worth screen time.
• Most of the scenes suffered from "ending one line too early" disease.  This is where a scene ends right before it pays off (with a line, decision, etc.).  Again, this can be effective, but only when there's either uncertainty or real suspense.  In this movie, you know what happened and not showing it on multiple occasions just gets old, especially when there's not a lot of real built-up suspense

In addition, the final credits are just annoying.  I don't want to see a boring, 50 dollar cab ride to nowhere after a boring 10 dollar movie.

1.5 stars...for Clooney and a bit of the dialogue.