Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mike Howell in AMERICAN ULTRA. Photo Credit: Alan Markfield
Pineapple Express. Meet Jason Bourne. Jason Bourne. Meet James Franco. This is exactly what I found American Ultra to be.
I really had no idea about this movie until about an hour into it. I was a little worried, as the main character, Jessie Eisenberg seemed to be typecast into another character that wasn’t so sure of himself, as I have seen before in a small movie called The Social Network. I have found that Jessie is beginning to change his characters around, though this movie is the biggest cross between the adventure stories of every stoner movie, crossed with every secret-agent man movie.
I was originally worried that we were going to get stuck in the stoner adventure because the main character is a stoner, along with his girlfriend. After the movie got started, I began to see that this wasn’t your typical stoner-adventure movie. Connie Britton, from her latest Nashville fame, seemed to be out of her wheelhouse as another main character in this movie, but was refreshing to see outside of the standard soap opera I am used to. This movie picked up quickly, as we began to see the backstory from the trailer and we see an unassumed bad assness.
If you want a good and easy-going comedy about super spies, but not too much on the stoner end, this is the movie to go see with friends. I have seen plenty of stoner movies over the years, but with the main character’s outside influences, I felt the good mix of Jason Borne and Smokey and the Bandit! This is a romping good time, but don’t expect a laugh a minute with the anti stoner, coming hard and heavy after the main character. Which by the way, is good to see That 70’s Show’s alumnus, Topher Grace, playing another bad guy. I really think he should play more roles like this!
Review: 4/5
– Rusty Greer is a writer for txtNation.tvt