Film Review: American Ultra

AMERICAN ULTRA
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh
Screenplay by Max Landis
Starring Jesse Eisenberg; Kristen Stewart; Connie Britton; and Topher Grace
A stoner, Mike, (Eisenberg) who works at a convenience store, comes to finds he is also a goverment agent. He also finds out he is marked as a liability. So Mike and his girlfriend, Phoebe (Stewart), together, they try to find a way out of this confusing mess.



It is that time of year. It starts in August and runs a couple weeks into September, then it pops its head back up in January!! It is movie dump time!! Where studios have movies on their plate that they do not have much confidence in, so they bring them out during these dump periods where movie going is lite. In August into September moviegoers are summer "blockbustered" out and prefer to stay outside and enjoy the last weeks of the summer. In January....again moviegoers are "blockbustered"
out after Christmas. Studios hope, with competition being low, they can try to at least recoup some of the money from that particular film. Sometimes.....they can get lucky and find a Guardians Of The Galaxy (which I liked but thought it was overrated) and hit pay dirt.
Well here comes American Ultra!! No..it is not the next Guardians...and it is not a very good film.
Many problems with this film and it starts with the trailer. All the funny parts that are in the trailer are the only funny parts in the film. In fact the film has a bit of sadness to it, when we see the way Eisenberg's character fights anxiety attacks and is manipulated by the government. The trailer does not show the violence in the film. Without a doubt the most violent film this summer. The strange thing is the violence is toward soldiers that are not bad guys but just doing what they are asked and trained to do, so then you end up feeling bad for them also.
Screenplay. You get the feeling by watching this that they had maybe the first 15 minutes on paper and just made the rest up as they went on. The film just seems messy with revelations that make no sense and, most important, I have no idea still why they wanted Eisenberg's character eliminated.
Casting. Topher Grace's was not believable at all. It almost became silly and annoying. Connie Britton's character was not fleshed out at all. She was just there as almost a mouthpiece. So her talents are wasted.
What worked? The chemistry between Eisenberg and Stewart was fantastic and lovely. However even there, they separated about 45 minutes into the film and at that point the film swirls further down into the toilet.
2 out of 5 stars for this disappointment. After watching the trailer I expected it to be much better,

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.