Film ● Review: American Ultra
- Very Average Joe
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Title: American Ultra
Director(s): Nima Nourizadeh
Screenwriter(s): Max Landis
Studio: The Bridge Finance Company, Circle of Confusion, Likely Story & others
Released: 2015
Runtime: 1h 35m
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Connie Britton, Topher Grace, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo
My Verdict: Not a bad lighthearted action-comedy. Enjoyable enough. Despite the premise, it is unfortunately not quite a stoner comedy.
● Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) lives with his girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), in the small town of Liman, West Virginia. He is in many respects a stereotypical stoner and works at the convenience store. But he also happens to be a sleeper agent.
● CIA officer Yates (Topher Grace) is the stereotypical ladder-climber who wants to clean up the remnants of shutdown programs, including killing Mike. Lasseter (Connie Britton) disagrees and turns up one night at the convenience store and recites the code words to activate Mike in an attempt to save his life. The plot follows Mike and Phoebe and, to a lesser extent, Lasseter as they try to survive Yates’s efforts.
● The title is an obvious reference to the mind control program MKUltra. Of course, being a stoner, Lasseter has to repeat Mike’s activation code. This is not explained in the film but, according to some authors, programming does not work well with pot.
● The tone of the film is an action-comedy as Mike becomes Bourne-lite when threatened. To those who don’t like Eisenberg, he is thankfully not too annoying.
● Stewart gives a solid performance fitting to the character and genre. She cares about Mike and bears with the situation well.
● Yates is nasty but also conveniently incompetent which Grace does well at. What is meant to be a covert operation becomes the loudest operation as can be with many military personnel, trucks and tents set up in the open under the guise of FEMA. Interestingly, Yates uses a monkey virus as a cover story and puts the town under lockdown. Obviously, “they” can’t think of better excuses.
● The structure is tight and the pacing is fast in a highly conventional and formulaic manner. For example, it is around the 20-minute mark when the action takes off.
● Visually, there is a nice mix of really tight one-shots, wider shots and the measured use of odd angles. Despite being set at night, it is somewhat colorful as if taking a comic book approach, referenced by Mike’s penchant for drawing comics. All this somewhat conveys the feeling of having heightened senses whilst being chilled. It could take this stylization further. Perhaps it is trying to avoid being pretentious even though it could get away with it.
● The action sequences are not bad but not great either. Although the momentary slow-motion works well, it is at times trying to be a bit too quick and frenetic, thereby losing some detail and, for the purposes of this film, the feeling of being stoned. The longer shots to stay with the action are appreciated.
● Ultimately, as a lighthearted action-comedy, it is not a bad film. It is not laugh-out-loud but is enjoyable enough, its action and pacing giving it a certain dynamism. Mike and Phoebe’s relationship grounds the story.
● However, the title and premise give the impression that it is a stoner comedy which it unfortunately is mostly not. Although presumably wanting to avoid a complete farce, which is appreciated, it needs a stoner’s silliness and a more intricate plot to take the comedy to the next level. The premise is different but as a comparison to another spy action-comedy, it lacks the cleverness of the classic True Lies (1992).
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