Review of American Ultra (2015) by Dave M — 20 Aug 2015

Maybe I'm just a really patriotic moviegoer, or maybe it's just a coincidence, but if "America" or "American" is in a movie's title, it's likely that I'm going to end up enjoying it. You may be the same way. Think about it: "American Sniper" (2014), "American Hustle" (2013), the "American Pie" movies (1999+), "American Beauty" (1999), "American Graffiti" (1973). All are movies that I would say range from "very good" to "great". And let's not forget the "Captain America" movies (2014 and 2011), "In America" (2002), "My Fellow Americans" (1996), "The American President" (1995) and "Coming to America" (1988)! So, does 2015's "American Ultra" (R, 1:35) continue the trend, or is it the exception to the rule?

This movie has many funny and clever moments, but also has a premise and plot points which stretch the limits of credulity - even for a stoner comedy. The movie's title sounds like a strain of marijuana (and, believe it or not, one with that name was actually created to help market the movie), but "American Ultra" actually refers to Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg), a highly skilled agent that the C.I.A. created by using experimental training and mind-altering techniques. (Apparently the C.I.A. can somehow erase memories at will.).

Mike's training was a success, but was deemed too damaging to the trainee's psyche and the C.I.A. shut down the program. They erased all conscious memories of his training and dropped off Mike in small-town, West Virginia where he became a marijuana-loving, cartoon-drawing convenience store clerk who lives with his girlfriend Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart). Due to severe panic attacks, Mike never leaves town, but he plans a Hawaii trip to propose to Phoebe. (Apparently convenience store clerks make a lot more money these days than I did when I did that job.).

Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) is a hard-hearted, but sarcastically humorous rising bureaucrat in the C.I.A. who has decided to eliminate Agent Howell. (I guess agents who have no memory of being agents are somehow a threat to the agency.) Yates sends a team of assassins to kill Mike while he's at work (even though the C.I.A. is forbidden from undertaking missions on American soil). Confronted with these two armed and lethal men, this underachieving stoner instinctively uses the resources immediately at his disposal to kill his potential assassins in a matter of seconds. Mike doesn't understand what just happened (or how it happened) and he calls his girlfriend in a panic. Phoebe arrives just ahead of the police, who arrest Mike and Phoebe as they stand near the two dead bodies (which is, of course, exactly where anyone would stand when they hear sirens).

Yates sends in another team (because, obviously, all mid-level C.I.A. bureaucrats have the power to send in hit men to shoot up small towns). This second team includes an agent named Laugher (Walton Goggins) who... laughs loudly and randomly, like Batman's "The Joker" (which, I would think, would make it tough to operate in stealth mode). Meanwhile, going rogue and trying to save Mike's life is C.I.A. trainer Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton), with help from her former assistant (Tony Hale) back at Langley. As Mike finds himself in increasingly threatening situations, he has the opportunity to exercise increasingly improbable skills and to cause increasing amounts of commotion. Of course, Yates' superiors do nothing to rein him in as the situation gets out of hand. It's a ridiculous, occasionally exciting and somewhat amusing fight for lives, careers and #merica.

Basically, "American Ultra" is "Pineapple Express" (or, insert the name of your favorite stoner comedy here) plus 1993's "Point of No Return" (which was based on 1990's "La Femme Nikita), plus "The Bourne..." (Saying exactly which one I'm thinking of would spoil part of this movie's plot.). The problem is that this film has no more than half the entertainment value of any of the films in that equation.

Still, "American Ultra" left me torn. I liked some of the acting and much of the humor, but all that was overshadowed by the movie's problems, big and small. A stoner comedy is meant to be ridiculous to an extent, but when the developments in the movie are so far removed from reality, these moments either have to be seen through the eyes of someone who is on drugs (like the hilarious claymation scene in "A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas"), or risk distracting viewers from the overall entertainment value.

Besides all that, the movie is unnecessarily violent. While the plot demands some violence, the deaths are so graphic and sometimes treated so whimsically, that the contrast between the serious and humorous aspects of the movie is just too great (much like 2015's "Kingsman: The Secret Service"). Call me unpatriotic, but I simply think "American Ultra" has more minuses than pluses. "C-".