I can't believe I'm about to say this, but American Ultra wouldn't have been half as effective if they hadn't put the "sleeper agent" concept in a stoner setting.
Jessie Eisenberg stars as Mike, a stoner who suffers from crippling panic attacks whenever he tries to leave town. Its quickly revealed that he's actually a sleeper agent who is kept in his quiet little town because he poses a security threat. Eisenberg is a solid lead who convincingly plays a stoner but is surprisingly good in action scenes too. Its very reminiscent of Zombieland. Kristen Stewart is Mike's girlfriend, and I can't believe it, but she's great. There's a well written scene early on that starts as a stoner scene where the two of them share stoner dialogue but it quickly becomes a surprisingly beautiful metaphor for their relationship. Early on we start rooting for those two crazy kids to work it out, in spite of a terrific twist regarding their relationship about halfway through.
The second big plot point is a CIA rivalry between Topher Grace's Yates and Connie Britton's Lasseter. Lasseter created Mike under her program, which was shut down and replaced by Yates'. The powers that be decide that Mike needs to be terminated, and so Lasseter goes rogue to protect him while Yates goes a bit far in taking him out. I found Yates to be a little undercooked, forcing Grace to overact in order to make him a villain. Lasseter is sympathetic but time spent with her meant less spent with Eisenberg and Stewart. Walton Goggins does good work as one of Yates' men, and has a nice scene towards the end with Eisenberg.
A bit of the screenplay was on the nose - sure, Yates is the villain but sometimes characters go a bit far in dealing with him. The film would've worked much better if it was another non- official body, rather than the CIA, because there were a lot of problems like the CIA ordering drone strikes on US territory that would have been alleviated, and the idea of open war between CIA officials over a difference of policy was a bit much to swallow.
At the end of the day, American Ultra's quirky blend of plot points and genres is a surprising success thanks to charming performances and awesome action sequences.
Jessie Eisenberg stars as Mike, a stoner who suffers from crippling panic attacks whenever he tries to leave town. Its quickly revealed that he's actually a sleeper agent who is kept in his quiet little town because he poses a security threat. Eisenberg is a solid lead who convincingly plays a stoner but is surprisingly good in action scenes too. Its very reminiscent of Zombieland. Kristen Stewart is Mike's girlfriend, and I can't believe it, but she's great. There's a well written scene early on that starts as a stoner scene where the two of them share stoner dialogue but it quickly becomes a surprisingly beautiful metaphor for their relationship. Early on we start rooting for those two crazy kids to work it out, in spite of a terrific twist regarding their relationship about halfway through.
The second big plot point is a CIA rivalry between Topher Grace's Yates and Connie Britton's Lasseter. Lasseter created Mike under her program, which was shut down and replaced by Yates'. The powers that be decide that Mike needs to be terminated, and so Lasseter goes rogue to protect him while Yates goes a bit far in taking him out. I found Yates to be a little undercooked, forcing Grace to overact in order to make him a villain. Lasseter is sympathetic but time spent with her meant less spent with Eisenberg and Stewart. Walton Goggins does good work as one of Yates' men, and has a nice scene towards the end with Eisenberg.
A bit of the screenplay was on the nose - sure, Yates is the villain but sometimes characters go a bit far in dealing with him. The film would've worked much better if it was another non- official body, rather than the CIA, because there were a lot of problems like the CIA ordering drone strikes on US territory that would have been alleviated, and the idea of open war between CIA officials over a difference of policy was a bit much to swallow.
At the end of the day, American Ultra's quirky blend of plot points and genres is a surprising success thanks to charming performances and awesome action sequences.