I remember seeing the trailer for American Ultra and thinking it looked like a fun action movie. The reviews I’d heard hadn’t been really that positive and several podcasts with Max Landis later and I had lost interest in the film. I picked it up at Wal-Mart the other night and sat with my wife to watch it and it turns out that the film lands firmly in the Not Quite Golden, Ponyboy, rating.
Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a stoner who is fairly content with his simple life and loving girlfriend, Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart). Howell’s life takes a crazy turn when Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) reveals that Mike is in fact a government agent that has been marked for termination. His training slowly kicks in and Mike has to decide whether to fight back and try to live or give up everything.
This movie does a pretty good job of blending stoner comedy and intense action film. While Eisenberg has dabbled in a similar type of film in “Zombieland,” this film has a bit more action where Eisenberg is concerned and I think he pulled it off. The first scene that his training kicks in he turns from friendly, spastic stoner to cold-blooded killer and back to extra spastic stoner seamlessly. I really enjoyed his character and managed to feel sympathy for the kind-hearted Mike and intense enthusiasm for Agent Howell.
The biggest red flag of this film to me was Kristen Stewart. I’m not a fan of anything I’ve seen her in, but she impressed me in this movie. Not the best actress I’ve ever seen, but she actually acted in this film. In the scene I mentioned in the previous paragraph, she shows up and has to react to the surreal scene and she nails it.
Other notable performances include Walton Goggins playing a character called Laugher that showed me he easily could have been a candidate to be the next Joker. His childlike, psychotic persona with creepy laughter is a haunting villain in the film. Topher Grace, John Leguizamo, Connie Britton, Tony Hale, and a surprise cameo by a former movie president fill in the sequences with some memorable performances. Leguizamo has probably the best lines in the movie and Grace is the same snarky character he always plays, but it works for the tone of the film.
Max Landis wrote the screenplay and his IMDb credit shows him to be extremely busy. He has a unique writing style with his first major picture being Chronicle. American Ultra is a fun take on the CIA action picture and a unique take on the stoner film. The movie is definitely more action than comedy with a solid love story being the through line for the film. His next movie, however, is called Mr. Right that features a hitman, played by Sam Rockwell, who kills the people who hire him and his girlfriend, Anna Kendrick, has to deal with this shocking reveal about her new boyfriend. It screams that it will have a similar tone to American Ultra, which is good in the sense that I liked this film, but bad for redundancy.
The film was directed by Nima Nourizadeh who also directed “Project X,” which I’ve never seen. I didn’t see any glaring errors in direction and again Kristen Stewart was acting in this film so maybe Nourizadeh deserve some praise for that alone. Michael Bonvillain was the director of photography for this film and has “Zombieland,” and “Cloverfield,”
If you don’t mind a little bit of violence and you’re looking for a fun film to watch then American Ultra may be rental worthy. I definitely feel that this movie can be re-watchable so if you’re a collector like me picking it up isn’t a bad idea either.
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