Lionsgate
I think the R-rated comedy is a delicate thing, because it’s so easy to screw up. Really, really easy. For every Hangover there are two Hangover sequels and a failed Vacation reboot. There’s more freedom in the more adult rating, but that freedom sometimes leads to easy jokes with nudity or profanity that aren’t shocking in this day and age. So combining that difficulty with the action genre makes it even more complicated. It’s possible, but how many can you think of? I think a good comparison was this year’s Kingsman movie, and even that was quite divisive. But when it works, it’s like a special kind of alchemy, or perhaps it just blows up in your face.
American Ultra is an action/comedy from director Nima Nourizadeh, previously only known for directing the forgettable college comedy Project X. It also is the second major release from screenwriter Max Landis, who co-wrote the movie Chronicle. Like in Chronicle, there are a few interesting repeats of classic character archetypes with some interesting new twists. The story is simple. Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a slacker and stoner in a small West Virginia town living with his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Mike is trying to build up the courage to propose while having difficulty with his ever-present panic attacks. So at first it seems like a “girlfriend is clearly too good for this guy” sort of story, but that would be far too simple and cliched.
In actuality, Mike is an experimental CIA assassin who is now being targeted by smarmy Adrian Yates (a smarmy Topher Grace) for being a security risk. Mysterious CIA lady Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) gets to Mike first and activates his super-spy skills before it’s too late. But now Mike, who has no memory of how he got these skills, is on the run from such crazy assassins as Laugher (Walton Goggins). That’s sort of the set-up, everything else in the movie is action, nonsense, and dialogue. Even a few snippets of decent drama snuck in, although that’s far from the film’s strong suit.
This story of the “former assassin back in action” is exceptionally old, and the “former assassin lost his memory” was getting a bit old when the Bourne movies reinvigorated the conceit. I think a strong indication of how you’ll feel about this comes to a few things. First, the rating: it’s violent and profane, somewhere around The Sopranos without the nudity. But the violence is pretty cartoonish, closer to a Tarantino style. Seeing the nebbish Jesse Eisenberg kick ass despite himself makes things seem less traumatic, although he’s certainly capable of playing it creepy. Not here, though. So it’s violent, that’s one thing.
Another is the style of the movie. This is irreverent and authority flaunting, with no qualms indicting the government for killing American citizens in a very over the top and unsubtle way. This is not a movie that has a lot of depth, tact, or delicacy. There’s a near stoner level comedy bubbling here, with the paranoid escalation of action and mildly tripping action sequences. The truth is, the dialogue is a lot better than the direction. For every interesting technique or fascinating way to show something, there’s a far more dull or predictable shot of action. The good news is that it mostly still works.
Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart first were together in the indie dramedy Adventureland, which is quite good. Both have improved as actors since then, and I thought they were good even back then. I hope people can finally begin to start forgetting the association of Twilight with bad acting; she’s no Taylor Lautner (sorry dude). I think both are great here too, with an easy chemistry and layered performances that make me want to re-watch the movie to catch what I missed. Connie Britton is fine, although her character isn’t given that much to do. Topher Grace is perfect as the horrible jerk trying to kill Mike. He’s totally found his niche. The other performances were good too, including Tony Hale as a drone operator and John Leguizamo as Mike’s drug dealer.
The assassin, as played by Walton Goggins, is pretty good in that over-the-top creepy way, but the movie gets in a bit of trouble trying to decide how seriously to take itself. Sometimes it’s ridiculous, other times it tries to play it straight. I prefer the former myself, in this case. In general, I enjoyed this movie. Some of the twists were obvious, but that didn’t really bother me. I “enjoyed the ride,” and appreciated a far better antihero than Jesse Eisenberg in Now You See Me, where he was kind of insufferable. It’s impossible to predict how well this movie might do, but use Kingsman as an example; it’s likely you’ll enjoy this if you liked that, and if not, you probably won’t.
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