American Ultra (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – A stoner, who is in fact a government agent – is marked as a liability and targeted for extermination. But he’s too well-trained and too high for them to handle.

My Take – What do you expect from a film about two stoners who are indulged into a situation which leads to some high octane action? Well that includes decent laughs also without any doubts. Scripted by Max Landis who gave us “Chronicle” and directed by Nima Nourizadeh who gave us “Project X” basically anything that could ever happen, happens in this film. From explosions and firepower, mental patients trained as killing machines, a young power-hungry CIA desk jockey who thinks he knows what’s best for the agency, John Leguizamo, all the way to an irresistible beautiful but bloodied love story, this movie has it all, well of course not everything, like there is no supernatural stuff of course. The film brings that same fun that flicks like “Zombieland” and “Shoot ‘Em Up” gave us, where you just want to see cool things happening all the time. And the story and the characters are still there, they’re not neglected at all. The action sequences are elaborate and they serve to speak about the characters rather than the other way around. And let’s face it, everyone of us has that switch in us that turns on whenever we watch somebody with a set of particular skills be both hardcore and vulnerable. There tends to be some fun pot smoking jokes and references that should satisfy everyone, and we get a good glimpse at this duo’s genuine and charming relationship, even though they think that smoking pot is the only real goal in life. Perhaps even more difficult was the task of trying to convince the audience to have genuine empathy for Kristen Stewart‘s character & find redeemable qualities in a mentally deranged and twisted main character of Jesse Eisenberg. Keeping this is mind the movie succeeds in what it is trying to do – entertain us!

The story follows Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) & Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) who live their lives together in a small town in West Virginia, where Mike works at a local market that only receives about two customers a week, and Phoebe works at a bail bond company. When not working, or even when they are on the job, the pair continuously smoke pot and discuss Mike’s still in process graphic novel ‘Apollo Ape’. Soon enough though, Mike is “activated” with a string of words by Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton), a CIA field agent which turns into a pot smoking action star. Mainly as a high level CIA official named Yates (Topher Grace) wants to kill and destroy all of the agents who were part of this illegal CIA program run by Victoria years ago. But while Mike’s the perfect killer, he’s also a sweet guy who just wants to be with his girlfriend. Luckily, Mike and Phoebe have a little help from Mike’s drug dealing friend Rose (John Leguizamo), who is a very over-the-top drug dealer that hits on all of the trashy cliches. Yates send in his best agents including The Laughter (Walton Goggins) to kill the couple. Thus begins the blood bath of the season. When it comes to blending action with comedy, some films hit the mark (Lethal Weapon & Rush Hour) and others just don’t, but when you combine action/suspense with stoner comedy, then what leads is one of the most fun films you’ll see this summer. I believe this film accomplishes what it set out to do, in convincing the audience that while a rogue faction of the CIA believes Mike should be put down for behaving like a rabid dog on steroids when activated, how could he be assassinated when his temperament resembles that of a cute and cuddly puppy when his mind is not dissociating. After all, his boyishly likable charm was his forte in this film. Mike at times embraces the viewer at arms length, then repulses us with highly erratic acts of brutal violence and paranoid and defiantly irreverent rants, while in other moments he pulls us in closely and intimately and tugs at our heart strings especially when he and Phoebe interact so lovingly and compassionately towards each other, not to mention his incidental cleverness even when baked. The high octane action sequences are gruesome and exhilarating in equal measures, but the true heart of the film lies – in its core romance.

An oddity in that, for all its trappings, it feels surprisingly tender, heartfelt, and sweet (complete with the most hilariously adorable cinematic proposal scene in recent memory), Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart share an intimately awesome chemistry which is oddly arresting, plaid and all. Jesse Eisenberg nails the role of stoner perfectly. He’s a chilled out lovable guy who just wants to be with his girlfriend and a joint of marijuana. You want to climb into the screen and smoke a fat one with him. and you want to watch his back when he’s surrounded by 6 assassins, not that he’d need you. Kirsten Stewart might be known best for her role in Twilight is actually not that bad here. She needs to do more comedy, because she works well as the “straight man” or woman in this case. And Kristen‘s screen presence–those endless close-ups of the strikingly gorgeous actress didn’t hurt either, not to mention her fiercely intense yet vulnerable acting persona, which made it easy for me to empathize with their plight, at times even being able to live vicariously through their ordeals because of the gritty realism she brought to this project. Interestingly, while the action sequences were always graphic, the sex scene which occurred during one of Mike’s flashbacks of his earlier days with Phoebe was implied, yet powerfully moving. Topher Grace, now firmly cementing character actor status, has a ball stomping around and petulantly screaming out colorfully degrading one-liners as a fussy bureaucrat whose motivations are scarcely explained but seldom matter. Connie Britton is both convincingly earnest and funny in her own right as a strangely maternal government agent. It’s also a delight to see Arrested Development star Tony Hale bagging laughs as a perennially flustered government techie. John Leguizamo‘s swag-talking Hispanic gangsta is hilarious. On the whole, ‘American Ultra‘, is a wildly entertaining action comedy, which could have easily turned out to be a mediocre actioner and hollowed out emotionally if Jesse and Kristen, along with director Nima Nourizadeh were unsuccessful in manipulating our feelings into finding redeemable qualities in damaged goods. Overall, I totally recommend this film, but maybe you should get baked before going to see it. Or at least get baked for the ending. Its quite awesome!