[projekktor id=’20542′]
The stylized action comedy American Ultra is a fun watch – funny, thrilling and creative – yet the film struggles to find its tone and under uses its all-star cast. Written by Max Landis (Chronicle) and directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Project X), the spy caper follows small town stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) who is unknowingly a CIA sleeper agent. The under achiever has one thing in his life that he cherishes above anything else, the love of his live-in girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Mike doesn’t question the gaping holes in his memory or his crippling fear of leaving town and Phoebe accepts his directionless lifestyle.
Unbeknownst to them, the now defunct Ultra program that created Mike is going in a new direction, which means the only remaining asset must be terminated. When Connie Britton’s Agent Lasseter, the former director of Ultra, gets wind that the current director, Agent Yates (Topher Grace), is planning on terminating her only surviving asset, she activates Mike to give him a chance at survival.
Eisenberg and Stewart have great on screen chemistry and are perfectly cast. However while the comedy works for the two main characters (their utter confusion at Mike’s surprise ninja skills and ensuing onslaught of attacks from highly trained military officials provides ample laughs), when it comes to the feuding Yates and Lasseter, the choice to portray them in a similar light completely undercuts the tone of the film. Having the two characters who should be professionals act like bickering children on a battlefield might be funny, but it deflates the story. Despite a great performance as “the guy everyone will love to hate”, Grace’s Yates is a weak villain, you dislike him because he’s an ass not because he’s actually threatening. Britton is woefully underused. Her character is just as impulsive and juvenile as Yates, she’s just on the side worth rooting for. Everything gets resolved in the worst way possible, with a deus ex machina ending.
Despite its narrative flaws however, the film was visually inventive and a pleasure to watch. The action scenes are gory and intense and the laughs are genuine. American Ultra is good old fashioned mindless mayhem, and sometimes that’s what you need.
Reviewed by Vithiya Murugadas.
