Review - American Ultra

American Ultra is an Action/Stoner comedy film directed by Nima Nourizadeh, written by Max Landis. The film stars; Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Tony Hale, Walton Goggins and John Leguizamo.

I didn't know a lot about this film prior to a few weeks before release, the trailers started showing in the cinema and i thought it looked fantastic and couldn't wait for it to come out, while i enjoyed the film i didn't love it as much as i thought i would.

The story of American Ultra is what made me most interested in the film, its about A stoner called Mike (Eisenberg) who in fact is a secret government agent, when he is targeted as a liability and needs to be dealt with, the government realise that he's too well trained to handle.
The film focuses a lot on the romance between Mike and Phoebe (Stewart) and it is truly the strong point of the movie, Eisenberg and Stewart's chemistry is great and you really believe that these two characters love each other, both actors worked together before on the film Adventureland in which they also played a couple, so the actors already knew each other which i think helped.
A thing i liked a lot about the film was how small it was, it's set in a small town in West Virginia, the film felt a lot more focused in this small town, it is very contained and you feel trapped like the characters are.

Leguizamo and Eisenberg in American Ultra

I didn't laugh too much in this film even though it was a comedy, most of the time i was laughing at the ultra violence of the film and the very funny character Rose, played by Leguizamo, who isn't in the film a lot, so i didn't laugh constantly, but i didn't mind because the action was very entertaining. Annoyingly the film uses a lot of digital blood in the film which looks so fake and ruins a bit of the action, using practical fake blood is a lot better.

Eisenberg and Stewart in American Ultra

Eisenberg and Stewart are great in the film, Eisenberg is his usual self, which i tend to like, but this is one of Stewart's best performances yet, she has her usual quirks in the film but also shows a very weak and vulnerable side with Eisenberg, which i was surprised to see. Connie Britton plays Victoria Lasseter, a C.I.A. member, who initiated the project that Eisenberg's character Mike was involved in, she was great in this role, she had to be tough and emotional at the same time and played it very well, Walton Goggins had a very strange role as an agent called Laugher, who laughs... very strange character because for most of the film he is a very one note character, until the end which i think redeemed the character and i was surprised by how i felt about the character after that.
The last character i wanted to talk about is also the worst, Adrian Yates, played by Topher Grace, his character felt completely out of place in the film and was completely over the top, i'm not sure if it was the way the character was written or the bad casting, but as the villain of the film he didn't feel intimidating at all and also wasn't funny.

American Ultra's premise isn't fully utilised in the film but it is still a great time at the cinema, the two main leads, the action/violence and the fun visuals make the film worth the admission.

3.5/5
What did you think of American Ultra?
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