American Ultra (2015)

Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) is a stoner who lives with Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) in Liman, West Virginia. He works at a convenience store and invests his disposable income into mind altering substances. Like TRUMAN, he has issues when he attempts to leave town, such as panic attacks. He likes to draw and create wild stoner stories. At 25 minutes or so into the film (midpoint plot spoiler) Mike becomes "activated" as he is part of a CIA project called Wiseman. Yates (Topher Grace) wants to destroy Mike, while Victoria (Connie Britton) is out to save him.The film becomes a fight of Mike vs the CIA using psychotic killers. Mike must come up with ways to kill people and defend himself that would make Bourne envious.This was a fun film. I enjoyed the characters and the fact it could lead to a series.Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Today looking in Netflix, the sections are those of why you've seen blah, blah, blah, I've discovered this movie. I don't know why, this movie caught my eye and I went to see it. Well, I liked it very much and I recommend it (in original version better), a lot of action with touches of tragicomedy, to have a good afternoon that you didn't know what to see.

Saw it last night on TV, and it did make me think. The plot is obviously silly and filled with huge holes and contradictions. But this is part of the territory of the sub-genre it so evidently parodies. That is the secret agent who was trained into a super human killing machine, combined with the damaged start. In a way it's a satirical version of La Femme Nikita, with hints toward Jason Bourne and The Long Kiss Goodnight.So, that's what the movie parodies, but if it didn't have any satirical aim, the whole thing would've been a waste of time money and talent, and if one misses the satire, that what one is left with. Well I find it to be a rather pointed satire of the Bureaucratic new attitude to spying, in which people are assets and life or death are simple side effects of managerial decision.The entire thing is a very tricky combination, since the plot is riddled with problems, as I already mentioned. But Jesse Eisenberg delivers a fantastic performance as the stoner who's a killing machine and doesn't know it. Topher Grace is also brilliant as a bureaucrat who got promoted into a position of power he doesn't understand, and still looks at the world as one big administrative system which bureaucracy can control and manage. The others perform their roles all right, but without Eisenberg and Grace the whole construction crumbles as a house of cards. With the two of them it's a fairly enjoyable experience.

American Ultra was a released and advertised as a type of stoner action-comedy, however it was not as comedic as lead to believe, but more so dramatic with plenty of violent action. Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, playing a couple whom we are to believe everything is fine between them, turns out for the worst while watching this film. Topher Grace plays the lead antagonist and he wasn't as believable and, acted as if he was still on a sitcom. He was miscast and not intimidating as the character was intended to be.American Ultra is quite a bizarre and weirdly film, where not much is explained and what is occurring happen very quickly,and all at once. There are brief twists along the way but for the most part, the film isn't entertaining or interesting enough. The trailers lead it believe this was another stoner comedy like Pineapple Express, but it is far from it. It is more like Hesher (starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt) but not as good, or even slightly similar to the Bourne films (in terms of plot wise) but also not as good. This film tries being more dramatic and emotional than needed and with the writing not being as great, we don't sympathize for the characters as we probably are supposed to. It takes itself too serious and that is a flaw. Sure there are action sets including shootouts, and fights, and some of which are quite bloody and disturbing but it isn't very good.Overall, American Ultra is not what it seemed to be as advertised, and it is lacking in general entertainment. The plot line is quite clever but the execution isn't great, and with better ideas, this movie could have been better and possibly a cult classic. Perhaps this film went through many edits and changes which is why the genres were somewhat all over the place.