American Ultra

Every year it feels like we get a bit into the dredges of summer with films that want to be part of the season, but aren't nearly big enough (or good enough) to be considered.

Much like last year at this time, there were several films that released near the end of August and bombed decently hard, similar to the way that this weekend seems to be shaping up. American Ultra, Hitman: Agent 47, and Sinister 2 all seem to be stinking up the box office and getting whooped by, the much better film, Straight Outta Compton. For the reader's reference, I will not be reviewing the latter two films in that list of three due to a combination of disinterest and lack of time.

I'm never really excited when I approach a weekend and I feel strained with whatever option I choose to see. It's in these instances that I've rarely been surprised by the film I choose, but hey, not every weekend can be a winner. Unfortunately, this weekend's choice, American Ultra, was not one of those "surprise" instances and instead was another example of the boring, somewhat uninspired, package of films that tends to locate itself between summer season and Oscar season.

American Ultra is an attempt at meshing the action/spy genre with the stoner genre. One of those is one of my favorites (I'll let you guess which one), and the other is a genre that I've never really been able to connect with, as I usually find myself wondering what the big deal is. Try as it might, American Ultra results in a rather odd combination, but not in a good way.

This is actually a scene out of last week's
Straight Outta Compton!

The plot boils down to: Mike, a bit of a loser stoner, and his girlfriend, Phoebe, live in a Podunk town with lives that aren't really going anywhere. Then it turns out that Mike is a sleeper agent of the CIA and they are trying to kill him. The characters are played by Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, respectively. Now, I feel like everyone has that one actor/actress that they can't stand. For me, that's often Eisenberg. I don't doubt that he is very talented, but I just cannot stand him...mainly because I get the impression that he's as much a d-bag behind the scenes as the characters he plays on screen. That aside, his character is actually pretty lovable in this film and I didn't hate him the whole time. Stewart also does well here, and despite what the general public thinks, she can actually act. The two have some decent chemistry and many of their scenes together are the highlight of the film. Unfortunately, the rest of the film's casting is way off the mark with a second, and arguably failed, attempt to make Topher Grace a villain, Connie Britton running around trying to be heroic, and Tony Hale as a defiant CIA agent, among others. Rather than echoing some of the inspired casting choices of the two main leads, it seemed they just gathered together a group of available actors and doled out roles.

Jesse, practicing his pole routine.

"I came in like a wrecking ball!!"

Seeing as how American Ultra is supposed to be part stoner genre, you'd also expect it to be funny. Throughout the film I laughed maybe a total of three times, and I'd say my nearby theater-mates got to five or six. The script of the film, save a couple scenes, is standard fare and rarely has any instances that make you laugh. Equally as void of laughter would be any situational or physical comedy, unless you think Eisenberg being super agent is funny (I don't). The saddest part is that you can tell the film is trying, like a comedian delivering punchlines only to hear crickets, and it ends up flopping with regards to living up to whatever "greatness" the stoner genre holds in high regard.

As an action film, it fares slightly better, but is still nothing to write home about. Shaky cam is often present here and there are quite a bit of quick-edits that make the action seem frantic, but hard to follow. It's incredibly violent and gory, much like this year's Kingsman and the amazing, Kick-Ass, but the difference between those two and this film resides in the filming of the action of which it's far superior in Vaughn's films. There are some fun moments here though, and a particular kill with a frying pan was beyond awesome, not to mention inspired. Still, I just couldn't help but feeling that this film wanted to mimic some of those aforementioned delightfully violent films, but came up woefully short.

It might be best to just realize that American Ultra is not my kind of film. I seem to always be at odds with the stoner genre, and despite this film's [failed] attempt at merging with the action genre, I still left the theater feeling rather upset that I wasted time on it. I'm sure that there are some that will love the film, and my guess is that they're the same movie-goers that hold Pineapple Express as the very pinnacle of comedy.

But for me? American Ultra was a film with few bright spots that represented a genre that I don't care about in the first place and another genre that has seen so many incredible highs already this year, that this film doesn't even come remotely close.

CONS:

• Failed attempt at the merging of two genres
• Incredibly unfunny -- poor script
• Miscast other than the leads. How many times are we going to try and make Topher Grace as the villain work?
• Subpar action editing and filming
• Uninspired music choices both in original score and soundtrack

PROS:

• I enjoyed Eisenberg (surprise!) and Stewart. They have solid chemistry
• Has a few moments of greatness
• Some cool kills and the action is mildly entertaining
• A few funny moments
• The plot was fun

Rath's Review Score: 4/10