Director: Nima Nourizadeh
Genre: Action/ Comedy
Runtime: 99 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman
Description: A stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) - 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.
Review: Films, where the leads are stoners, can nowadays be put into its own genre. Think of movies like “Pineapple Express” and “Dude, Where’s My Car?”. “American Ultra” is also one of those films.
Mike is a nobody, who spends his days smoking weed and hang out with his girlfriend Phoebe, while working at the local supermarket. His anxiety to leave town doesn’t really help him any further either. A woman visits him at work and starts talking to him in words he doesn’t understand. Mike sends her away and not long after that two armed men try to kill him. Surprising himself, he overpowers them. How is it possible that he can do that?
The movie is meant to be a comedic action movie, but you’re never sure if this is supposed to be taken seriously or that it’s a parody on the genre of spy thrillers. The cast is good though. Jesse Eisenberg was made for a role like this and has great chemistry with Kristen Stewart. Topher Grace was funny and Connie Britton did a good job too.
Besides a few cool action scenes, the story develops slowly and the ending isn’t surprising at all. The movie is not as spectacular as the trailer let us believe.
The movie is somewhat entertaining, but I had higher expectations. The concept is great, the execution sadly isn’t.
Rating: 2,5/ 5
