American Ultra
"Something very weird is happening to me: I keep killing people! There's a chance I may be... a robot!" -Mike Howell
Since Seth Rogen and James Franco made Pineapple Express, I have personally been craving for more stoner-action movies. Something about people getting high and then them delving into situations that are completely weird and out of the ordinary makes me burst into laughter, at their expense of course. So once I saw the trailer for American Ultra, I was giddy and couldn't wait until the movie was released. When I got up out of my seat from the theater I thought to myself that this was different than I anticipated it to be.
^Don't give me that look Jesse! I didn't say it was bad!^
American Ultra, directed by Nima Nourizadeh, stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mike Howell, Kristen Stewart as Phoebe Larson, Topher Grace as Adrian Yates, Connie Britton as Victoria Lasseter, and John Leguizamo as Rose. Jesse Eisenberg pretty much plays himself in this movie as in every other movie he does, the awkward kid.
Mike is a stoner working at a little quick mart and lives with, his also stoner girlfriend, Phoebe. He has some issues with anxiety, which usually onsets when he tries to leave his town. One day, a stranger, Victoria Lasseter, comes to the mart where Mike works and activates him. It turns out that Mike was part of a CIA experiment that trains normal unsuspecting people into killer agents. Lasseter activates Howell because the director of a new program that also trains people to be killers, Adrian Yates, orders his trained killers to kill Howell (Lasseter and Yates pretty much hate each other. There isn't much back story to this). So now commences the 1 hour and 35 minutes stoner-action comedy with bloody deaths and references to weed and getting high. A lot of references to weed and getting high.
So is American Ultra the next Pineapple Express? No. This movie lacks the lovable personalities of Seth Rogen and James Franco. Is American Ultra a bad movie? No. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was very different from what the trailer made it out to be, in my opinion.
I thought it would be a lot more funnier than it was. This isn't to say that it isn't funny. When the comedic moments were present, I laughed my guts out. However, there weren't that many moments of this. It was clearly more action than comedy. For a small portion of the film, it was a drama. It kind of took me out of the happy mood that I had while watching Mike Howell kicking butt.
Also, some things weren't explained at all. Here are some questions I still have about the film:
Mike is a stoner working at a little quick mart and lives with, his also stoner girlfriend, Phoebe. He has some issues with anxiety, which usually onsets when he tries to leave his town. One day, a stranger, Victoria Lasseter, comes to the mart where Mike works and activates him. It turns out that Mike was part of a CIA experiment that trains normal unsuspecting people into killer agents. Lasseter activates Howell because the director of a new program that also trains people to be killers, Adrian Yates, orders his trained killers to kill Howell (Lasseter and Yates pretty much hate each other. There isn't much back story to this). So now commences the 1 hour and 35 minutes stoner-action comedy with bloody deaths and references to weed and getting high. A lot of references to weed and getting high.
So is American Ultra the next Pineapple Express? No. This movie lacks the lovable personalities of Seth Rogen and James Franco. Is American Ultra a bad movie? No. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was very different from what the trailer made it out to be, in my opinion.
I thought it would be a lot more funnier than it was. This isn't to say that it isn't funny. When the comedic moments were present, I laughed my guts out. However, there weren't that many moments of this. It was clearly more action than comedy. For a small portion of the film, it was a drama. It kind of took me out of the happy mood that I had while watching Mike Howell kicking butt.
Also, some things weren't explained at all. Here are some questions I still have about the film:
- What happened to Mike's parents?
- At the end, does Mike work for the government?
- What happened to Laugher (another mindwashed agent trying to kill Mike)?
- Did Lasseter become the director of the CIA program?
All of these worries aside, the action was pretty cool. Since it is a stoner movie, Mike will use anything to kill people. The most notable death is seen in the trailer, when Mike kills a killer agent with a spoon...a spoon. The kills were for the most part creative.
^Fatality!^
The acting exceeded my expectations for a stoner-action movie. I liked Jesse Eisenberg as his awkward character being turned into a cold-blooded killer and then turning right back into the awkward guy. Kristen Stewart was unrecognizable from the unemotional Twilight character. She did a great job estranging herself away from those movies and American Ultra proved that Kristen could do comedy and action. Topher Grace did kind of a normal villain. I wish he had some type of motivation to kill Mike Howell other than just to piss off Lasseter.
^Sorry Topher. I can still only see you as Eric from That 70s Show^
I like American Ultra. I didn't love it as much as I hoped to, but I can recommend it to a fan of stoner movies. Expect a lot more action than comedy in this movie though.
Pro
- The action was cool (a lot of blood)
- Weed references were funny
- Acting exceeded my expectations
- Interesting premise of a stoner being turned into a stone-cold killer
- Creative kills
- More action than comedy
- Unexplained events
- Dramatic scenes (which weren't bad, just unnecessary)
3.7/5
Watch the trailer here
American Ultra is in theaters now
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