American Ultra
Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh
Written by: Max Landis
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale
Action/Comedy - 95 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 19 Aug 2015
Written by: Max Landis
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale
Action/Comedy - 95 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 19 Aug 2015
Give a hand to the CIA. These guys just cannot catch a break in Hollywood. Sure, they came off alright in Argo, but for every one of those, there is a Bourne Identity, a Good Shepherd, a Salt, and even a Burn After Reading. Sometimes, CIA agents are bumbling fools, sometimes, they’re duplicitous and evil. In American Ultra, the CIA is clustered with bureaucratic one-uppers who delight in pointing out who sits where on the org chart; they also forget their mission is foreign intelligence. American Ultra shows a ham-handed CIA operation targeting an American citizen on American soil; a major no-no. I’ve seen sleeper agents before and solitude interrupted by extreme violence before, but American Ultra takes a Pineapple Express marker to the whole thing and creates a mildly entertaining yarn about a nobody who suddenly realizes he just may be somebody.
Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg, 2015's The End of the Tour) lives the life of an aged hippie while still in what appears to be his twenties. He runs the local Cash & Carry in Limon, West Virginia, a town so out of the way it does not even look like it’s a single exit off a back road highway, let alone an interstate. Mike enjoys the more than occasional herbal indulgence, draws amusing comic book scenarios in his sketch book, and feels like the luckiest guy on Earth because he gets to come home every day to Phoebe (Kristen Stewart, 2015's Clouds of Sils Maria).
Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg, 2015's The End of the Tour) lives the life of an aged hippie while still in what appears to be his twenties. He runs the local Cash & Carry in Limon, West Virginia, a town so out of the way it does not even look like it’s a single exit off a back road highway, let alone an interstate. Mike enjoys the more than occasional herbal indulgence, draws amusing comic book scenarios in his sketch book, and feels like the luckiest guy on Earth because he gets to come home every day to Phoebe (Kristen Stewart, 2015's Clouds of Sils Maria).
Mike and Phoebe’s routine grows even a bit too stale for them and they save for a Hawaiian getaway. Mike’s panic attacks prevent them from leaving because for some reason, Mike is psychologically prevented from leaving town. Crestfallen Phoebe scares the hell out of Mike because what if she finally decides to do what is best for her sanity and take off? Watching the first 15 minutes or so of Mike and Phoebe’s small but comfortable little life sets the audience up for a relationship drama, a will they or won’t they make it together indie film.
Well, the zoom over to CIA Headquarters and the head scratching reasons behind why Mike becomes the target of government assassins shatters our domestic tranquility. CIA bad guy Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) considers Mike a security risk and orders his demise. Mike’s savior is another CIA veteran who has personal reasons to try and keep him alive; this is Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton, 2015's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). Victoria says some key words to Mike, who thinks she is quoting song lyrics, but something inside Mike’s brain wakes up. When some shady characters threaten Mike, he kills them – one guy with a spoon before he realizes what he just did.
WTF? Mike is a stoner. He enjoys listening to his LPs, drawing his space monkey character, and cuddling with his girlfriend. He knows nothing about killing a guy with a spoon…but apparently there is a lot about himself Mike doesn’t know. Soon enough, Mike is in the police station, engages in another obliterating firefight, and the rest of the film is off to the races. Agent Yates throws an armada of psychopaths at Mike who becomes more adept bit by bit at using every item in the room as a weapon. The climax takes place in a WalMart type store which is one step below The Equalizer’s ultimate scene in a Home Depot for ready-made inanimate object lethality.
John Leguizamo (2014's John Wick) pops up as what passes for gangster in Limon, West Virginia. He sells illegal fireworks out of his van and drops the N-word so much to people of any race it seems to take the place of ‘hi, how are you?’ Eisenberg as slow-paced and thoughtful Mike is not immediately believable. Eisenberg, from The Social Network and The End of the Tour is known as hyper-articulate and twitchy. Watching him work in slow motion only to speed up again slashing throats and mangling faces is a bit of a stretch, but he holds his own.
Bravo to director Nima Nourizadah for giving characters who actually get hit in the face bruises and cuts. By the end, Mike and Phoebe’s faces resemble modern art. Writer Max Landis, who wrote 2012’s outstanding Chronicle, trades in science fiction for a curious Bourne Identity knock off about a guy who has no memory of his past but can clear a room full of bad guys. American Ultra isn’t ho-hum because of the familiar territory, amnesiac super agents will always work in my book, it’s more the plodding pace and lack of exploration. Mike’s backstory is thinner than believing Topher Grace is a high-ranking CIA superior. American Ultra is neither The Bourne Identity nor Pineapple Express; it’s more Pineapple Express’s angry younger brother.
Bravo to director Nima Nourizadah for giving characters who actually get hit in the face bruises and cuts. By the end, Mike and Phoebe’s faces resemble modern art. Writer Max Landis, who wrote 2012’s outstanding Chronicle, trades in science fiction for a curious Bourne Identity knock off about a guy who has no memory of his past but can clear a room full of bad guys. American Ultra isn’t ho-hum because of the familiar territory, amnesiac super agents will always work in my book, it’s more the plodding pace and lack of exploration. Mike’s backstory is thinner than believing Topher Grace is a high-ranking CIA superior. American Ultra is neither The Bourne Identity nor Pineapple Express; it’s more Pineapple Express’s angry younger brother.
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