American Ultra (2015)

Genre

Action | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Director

Nima Nourizadeh

Country

USA

Cast

Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale, Monique Ganderton, Stuart Greer, Lavell Crawford, Michael Papajohn, Nash Edgerton

Storyline

Small-town pothead Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is marked as a liability and targeted for extermination by the CIA.

Opinion

A film starring both Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart can either be bad or be bad, so I don't really know why I even had some expectations. Maybe I'm a masochist and I like being disappointed, which is exactly what happened here because "American Ultra" is quite a mess.

The reason? Very simple, it tries too hard to be something between "The Bourne Identity" and "Pineapple Express" with a hint of romance - that's what Stewart does best after all. The result is a quite unengaging story with a stoned Jason Bourne played by Jesse Eisenberg. Now it seems fair to add annoying.

But being honest, the story isn't the real problem here. The storytelling is. It is so messed-up and confused, it's actually hard to follow the story and understand what's going on, and the end is not that interesting, not even with the plot twist.

However, that's not what disappointed me. The problem is the kind of film I was expecting, a stoner comedy, which is exactly how the trailers and interviews have portrayed the film. Instead, "American Ultra" is more of a dramedy, or dark comedy. Only without the humor. Or any kind of entertainment as the jokes fall flat all the time and the action scenes aren't nothing special - which is another shame because the film is supposed to be an action flick as well. And don't let me started on the science fiction part. Not good, that's how it is.

Not even the acting is good. Even though he plays a kid of different role, Jesse Eisenberg is still utterly annoying. Kristen Stewart is "Twilight" awful - it feels like she's reading straight from the script. Topher Grace overacts most of the time. John Leguizamo is terrible. On the other hand we have Connie Britton and Walton Goggins, both wasted in this film.