Review of American Ultra (2015) by Ray P — 22 Aug 2015

Someone has already said it, but the phrase fits this movie really well: 'American Ultra' is basically 'Pineapple Express' meets 'Bourne Identity.' Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is your classic American good-for-nothing stoner that on one night was able to kill two CIA operatives. Now he and his girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristin Stewart) must figure out a way out of Wyoming and figure out why Mike can kill people. In all honesty this movie is very enjoyable for the common movie-goer and was a surprising comedic treat. The action sequences were sharp, focused and the special effects were seamless. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristin Stewart had great comedic timing and their dramatic performances were highlighted by their great on-screen chemistry. Walton Goggins as the number 2 antagonist, Laugher, was brilliant and his scenes alone could serve as an audition for the comic book villian, The Joker.

Positive Performances aside, the movie shined as an offbeat Romantic-Action-Comedy, but struggled to focus on a clear tone. At it's heart, the film succeeded as a beautiful love story and Eisenberg made it hard to not care about his anxiety not to leave Wyoming and his poor luck with proposal opportunities. Some sequences felt out of place or would have been better suited for another film. I mean, this movie's tone had a real identity crisis. It identifies most with a Romantic-Comedy, but there's bloody good action, suspense and genuine horror, and somewhere in their is a spy thriller, with just a pinch of real dramatic chops on display from Kristin Stewart (yes, I said it, Ms. Stewart can act). The film's first act was slow, with many of its rom-com beats on display, but was quickly followed by the spy-thriller-action-comedy the film was supposed to be. Without giving much away, the tone was all over the place and it never really recovered from that. It was simply distracting and a major soft spot for the film.

Another weak spot for the film was Topher Grace. His character was whiny and emotionally all over the place, it just had too much energy to counter-balance the high octane action and wise-cracks from Eisenberg and Stewart. It was a bad guy that reflected the tone of the film and it was an unsettling performance to watch. John Leguizamo also felt out of place and served no real purpose to overall arc of the film, and the comedic bits he was apart of weren't really all that funny, of which he's really only in 2 sequences. Some more negatives lie in the cutting of action sequences, where the fights and violence were clear it was inconsistent and felt a little choppy. The single cut action sequence towards the end had cuts that made the punches look too fast and forced, but that's just me being a little nit-picky.

However, despite the many negative aspects about this film, and there are a lot, the movie ends very nicely, a little messy, but sweet. American ultra is a 6/10; a great pop-corn flick that sought to entertain cheaply, but effectively.