American Ultra

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. I’m not a stoner by a long shot but I don’t think you should be in order to enjoy a comedy, even a “stoner” comedy, right? Even though technically, “American Ultra” is well made and I don’t want to give it a bad review, I can’t deny that there are some big mistakes in the way the film is both plotted and directed. It’s a comedy that isn’t very funny.

Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) is a stoner who, like every stoner I’ve ever met, has a girlfriend that is way too good for him but loves him anyway. One day, he gets a strange message from CIA agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) and suddenly finds himself effortlessly taking down legions of special ops goons. Without any idea what is going on, he turns to his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) for help and they try to survive a full-on onslaught by a high-ranking government suit, Adrian Yates (Topher Grace)

I will begin with what I liked about the film because I don’t feel like it’s a waste of time, or even a picture that’s all that bad. On a technical level it’s a very well made film. It’s an action comedy and the sequences where Mike is fighting off assailants and has to kill people creatively are very well done. Not only are they shot in a way that makes them very easy to follow, but the idea that a weakling like Mike could go around taking down opponents like the ones he faces in this film seems completely possible thanks to the good special effects and credible stunt work throughout.

I also thought that the leads were quite good. I know Kristen Stewart has a lot of anti-fans because of her involvement in the “Twilight” franchise, but it’s time to give that one a rest. Just like so many actors and actresses who made their debut in some pretty shoddy to just ok horror films, she can be really good when she’s given a meaty role. Just today I realized that Leonardo DiCaprio’s debut was in “Critters 2” when I happened to pull DVD from my shelf and moved it to my “Maybe this isn’t worth keeping box”. I haven’t seen that movie in a while but I bet you Leo doesn’t show a whole lot of great talent in that creature feature. Getting back to “American Ultra”. Stewart’s good in the movie, as is Jesse Eisenberg. They both display a wide range as they go from happy stoners, to people who are confused and frightened about what is happening to them and change once again when the action escalates. I also noticed that the makeup effects are excellent. So good it makes the zombie comedy I saw advertised before “American Ultra” look like amateur hour. I appreciated the fact that when our leads get beaten up, it’s not just a cut lip and otherwise strategically placed injuries to ensure they still look good, it really looks like they took a brick to the face.

While the film is never boring and has some moments where it’s compelling to watch, in terms of the comedy and overall plot, there are some inexplicably bad mistakes made throughout. From frame one it starts off on the wrong foot by showing us Mike sitting at a table handcuffed with a lot of injuries, and then having the entire movie play back in reverse so that we start at the beginning because he’s “telling us how it all happened”. Way to spoil a whole bunch of your own scenes by showing clips of them! How many movies have pulled this off successfully that I see this done over and over again? I can’t think of any off the top of my head (though I’m sure there are some) From there, we witness some severely bad calls in the dark humor. I’ve seen ultra-violence done in action comedies before, but there’s a difference in having innocent civilians being brutally murdered in cold blood, and a bunch of people you wouldn’t shed a tear for in real life having their heads chopped off. I’m talking about the difference between seeing say… members of a certain extremely racist and short-sighted supposedly Christian U. S. church or a bunch of drug dealers get massacred, versus regular people just minding their own business or doing their jobs. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

More severe than this, I found the final action sequence to be absolutely ludicrous. I don’t mean the action, I mean the fact that our protagonist is so stupid he can’t think of arming himself with a decent weapon, even when one presents itself readily to him. I understand that they give a somewhat credible reason why he and Phoebe are together, but considering what you know about her character by the end of the picture, and what you know about him, doesn’t it really seem like she’s dating a guy that’s way, wayyy too stupid for her?

The final nail in the coffin for me is the central villain and an overall complete disregard for logic in the characters’ actions. Topher Grace essentially plays his character from “That 70’s Show” if he grew up to be bitter and learned how to use hard R expletives. His actions made very little sense to me. They say that he basically weaseled his way up the ladder at the CIA, but that still requires someone to act and think like a human being! I might have been able to believe him and his goons doing what they do if they had been like a terrorist organization like SPECTRE, or the Legion of Doom, but someone in the CIA throwing tantrums like an upset teenager like this? I don’t buy it at all, not even in a comedy.

I have a theory about this movie, that it was edited together and when test groups watched it, they didn’t laugh or enjoy it very much, which explains the hook at the beginning to get people involved and the admittedly awesome, but totally out-of-place animated sequence during the end credits. It’s the equivalent of having the Minions dance to a pop song. Just have the stoners whom this picture is targeted towards leave the film talking about how it started funny with some good jokes and ended with that far-out animation and the money will just start pouring in. Honestly, if you think my sobriety “ruined” the picture for me, you’re wrong. I don’t even think stoners will enjoy this film because it doesn’t have the jokes you would expect it to, doesn’t have marijuana play into the film in any way that’s significant whatsoever and as I said before, it’s so dark once Mike starts getting into the action that it just sucks the potential for laughter right out.

This was an idea ripe for potential, but it doesn’t live up to them at all. It’s a shame. You can see the talent on-screen and I didn’t ever hate the film or feel like I was wasting my time, but I can’t really think of anyone I’d recommend it to. Even to the stoner crowd that would be going into the movie with their brains altered by drugs, I couldn’t give any more than a lukewarm word of encouragement to check it out. (Theatrical version on the big screen, September 1, 2015)