American Ultra (2015) Review

American Ultra (2015)

American Ultra follows Mike Howell, a small town stoner, who gets targeted by the CIA for termination, only to discover that he’s a one-man killing machine who will do anything to protect his girlfriend. 

As should be obvious by now, I’m a sucker for downright outrageous movies that exist for no other reason than to be utterly chaotic, so it should come to no surprise that American Ultra checks off a lot of my boxes. Set in the fictional town of Liman, West Virginia, this odd mix of kooky, stoner comedy and all-out action against a background of gallows humor, takes a super unique concept—a sleeper agent, who’s unaware he’s a sleeper agent, that goes berserk after a kill order is put out on him—and really runs away with it. 

There’s an out-of-the-box ambition to Ultra that we don’t often get with larger studio films, and under normal circumstances, I’d likely hate it, but I thoroughly love just how creative and tonally contradictory the film comes out to be. Mike is an anxiety ridden pothead, intercut with the ability to go feral at the slightest hint of danger, and yet, he always maintains this super awkward quality to him, where he’s just as shocked and afraid as everyone else. It’s utterly hilarious, while even a little sincere, which is the last thing I would expect out of movie like this. 

We get a stacked cast, starring Bill Pullman, Tony Hale, John Leguizamo, Walton Goggins, Connie Britton, Topher Grace, Kristen Stewart, and Jesse Eisenberg. Oddly enough, Stewart and Eisenberg make a very weird pairing, with little to no present chemistry, and yet…I honestly can’t think of two people better for their roles, both knocking it out of the park in such an unexpected action setting.

American Ultra, directed by Nima Nourizadeh, 

is an awesome sophomore effort out of Nourizadeh (Project X), combining sweet, slacker romance with slick, violent, and incredibly stylized action that is just loads of fun. If you didn’t completely enjoy yourself watching this one, you really gotta lighten up. 

8.9/10