AMERICAN ULTRA: SURPRISE PERFORMANCE

I have to say up front that I’m not a huge fan of Jesse Eisenberg. While I’ve enjoyed him in a few movies I find that most of the time I feel as if I’m watching the same character transposed from one film to another. There are several actors who have fallen prey to this problem and Eisenberg is just another to fall in with this group. But on rare occasion he acts differently and it is this that shows there is hope for him down the line. This movie falls into the mid-area between those two styles of performing.

Eisenberg stars here as Mike Howell, a stoner employee at a local quickie mart with dreams of writing a comic book about a heroic monkey but little hope of a prosperous future. That all changes one evening when Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) shows up and says a few sentences to him. This has no apparent effect on him and Lasseter leaves.

While on a break and stepping outside for a quick smoke, Mike sees two men tampering with his car. When he calls out for them to stop them pull guns and try to kill him. Suddenly slacker Mike knows how to not just defend himself but to take out the two would be assassins as well.

Freaked out and with no clue what it happening Mike calls his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) and tries to tell her what happened. She shows up and is just as startled as he is. As more people show up to take Mike out the pair are on the run with bits and pieces of Mike’s mind coming back to him.

It turns out Mike was one of the deadliest assassins ever, employed and created by a secret government agency. When he was deemed unstable a drug induced memory wipe was employed with trigger words to return those memories should the need arise. Now the agency has determined that he knows too much and is far too dangerous to leave be which explains the attempt on his life.

As Mike and Phoebe make their way through the night, more attempts on his life are set in motion. Behind most of these is a paranoid head agent with his own issues as played by Topher Grace. It turns out Lasseter was an agent with a conscience who felt Mike didn’t deserve this treatment. As his only ally the odds are stacked against them but then this is a movie so those odds aren’t near as bad as you would think.

Eisenberg actually does a decent job here, not relying on the whip snap style of dialogue that he employs in almost every role he has. While that works in some cases it doesn’t always. Fortunately the director of the film didn’t rely on that and brought something more out of him for the role of Mike. As with another Eisenberg film, THE END OF THE TOUR, when he doesn’t rely on this he does a better job. It would be nice to see him not depend on it in the future.

Stewart does exactly what I’ve come to expect of her in roles these days. Once again I’ve never found her style of acting to be believable and she doesn’t disappoint here. The movie suffers from a lack of connection between the two lovebirds. She doesn’t have to fall in love with all of her co-stars to make it seem that way but at least make those of us watching believe it.

The movie does entertain of a certain level but at the same time should have been much better than the end result. The schizophrenic genre bending doesn’t help at all. Is it a thriller? Is it a spy film? Is it a comedy? Is it social commentary? By the end of the film I still wasn’t sure. It wasn’t enough of any of these genres to qualify as one or another and at the same time didn’t have enough of a singular identity of its own.

I have no doubt that some will find a lot of humor in portions in the film to make them laugh while others will find enough action to satisfy those needs. That it was marketed as a comedy means anyone depending on that will be disappointed. Then again how does one market a movie that doesn’t fall into any neat category? While it isn’t a terrible movie it does lack in many ways. Perhaps it’s good enough for an evening’s viewing and for fans of both leads but it’s not one that I’d add to my collection for keeps.

Click here to order.