Cast: It's the reunion of Adventureland stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kirsten Stewart. Other prominent actors include Connie Britton, Topher Grace, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, and Tony Hale.
Plot: Mike (Eisenberg) is a stoner who works for a convenient store and lives in a small town in West Virginia with his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart). He's also a sleeper agent for the government whose mind has been wiped. A CIA agent/director (Grace) decides that Mike is too dangerous of a loose end to keep around and decides to take Mike out. Agent Lasseter (Britton), the agent who trained Mike, wants to stop this and activates Mike's skills, making him better equipped to survive the waves of shit the government throws at him.
Thoughts:
This is a funny idea for a movie. The pitch meeting must've been a breeze. It's high concept with a lot of room to have fun. There are several moments in the movie that utilize this well, especially when Mike first discovers his powers.
Eisenberg and Stewart are pretty excellently cast in one respect. They both play convincing stoners to star with. Eisenberg milks a lot of scenes by playing up his neuroses. Pretty much as soon as he unconsciously does any spy moves, his response to that is entertaining. Stewart plays her character more honestly than the movie requires. This can be a very unhinged movie at times and she tries to play it all like it's really happening. This grounds things well.
Grace is clearly enjoying himself. The script doesn't require any nuance from him and he's happy to oblige. I love Britton, but I'll admit that she felt a little out of place. She didn't seem to know how she needed to play her character. Should she be more heroic? Should her character be more bogged down by bureaucratic middle-management? Should she be an ace at beating the system? I was never sure. Walton Goggins got exactly one direction for his entire character and he committed to it.
Ultimately, my problem with the movie is the direction, and it's a big problem. The movie does an awful job convincing me that Eisenberg is Jason Bourne. Eisenberg should be much more sleek and unconscious. His movements should be efficient as hell when his training takes over. That's how he's presented and there's a couple stray moments of that. Mostly though, it's him flailing about even in spy mode. Everything is chaotic, including him. He shouldn't rely that much on hoping that the bad guys have bad aim. Now, if the movie is "random guy finds himself in the middle of a war with the CIA" then that's entirely fine. This is "random guy finds out that he's a highly skilled agent" though, which requires selling him as a weapon. The movie never comes close to that.
It's never a good sign when the most lively part of a movie is during the end credits and that's certainly the case here. the end credits are my favorite part. All I'll say is that much like The Man From UNCLE last week, it serves as a pseudo-sequel the this movie and it's loony and funny: pretty much, it's plays like the movie they were trying to make for the previous 90 minutes.
Elephant in the Room: You just hate Nima Nourizadeh. It's true, I hated Nourizadeh's only other directed feature Project X about as much as I've hated anything since I started doing these reactions. He looks like an obvious target for me. I have no inherent ill-will toward his work though. I wanted American Ultra to be good. It wasn't. It's hard for me to blame the script because most of what needs to be there is there: the jokes, the beats, the characters. I can't blame the acting because any time it's the actors on screen, they are convincingly playing their characters. It's how the movie was shot that took the fun out if it. Sadly, that's Nourizadeh as far as I can tell.
To Sum Things Up:
Some fine performances and an interesting premise try to make up for poor execution overall. It's never wholly unenjoyable but it's certainly a missed opportunity. Jesse Eisenberg or Kristen Stewart fans should find enough to like about it though.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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