Lazy loser discovers killer instinct
Print Edition
THE likeable awkward chemistry of Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg remains intact in “American Ultra,” a violent stoner action-comedy that’s half “Pineapple Express,” half “The Bourne Identity,” and not as good as either.
Stewart and Eisenberg, who starred together in the splendidly low-key summer comedy “Adventureland,” again come together as an appealing, mutually mop-headed tandem that matches Eisenberg’s stuttering unease with Stewart’s deadpan cool.
They play a flannel-wearing West Virginia couple, Mike and Phoebe, happy together despite Mike’s weed habit, perpetual apologizing and panic attacks from just about anything that upsets his seemingly innate inertia. Looking at a car that’s crashed into a tree, he wonders to Phoebe, placating and devoted, if he’s the tree and she’s the car.
The small-town, low-stakes drama of “American Ultra” is convincing in the beginning, thanks to the two stars. But it’s a setup.
Unbeknownst to Mike, a convenience store clerk, he’s an elite killing machine trained by the CIA, a decommissioned government experiment.
A petulant young agent (Topher Grace) has risen in the ranks and now wants to eliminate evidence of the experiment that gave Mike his secret talents, overseen by Connie Britton’s more sympathetic Victoria Lasseter.
To prevent her former student’s death, she sneaks to the convenience store and activates Mike with a few code words. When thugs come to kill him, Mike is astounded to find himself expertly stabbing one with a spoon. Afterward, he cowers behind a lamppost, looking at the bloody wreckage: “I have, like, a lot of anxiety about this,” he tells Phoebe.
Mayhem ensues, surprisingly violent and cartoonish in its extremes. The small town comes entirely under siege.
“American Ultra” has its simple genre charms, thanks significantly to its entertaining cast and leading pair. Stewart, in particular, looks like she’s punching below her weight class. As if often the case, Stewart’s the best thing in the movie. And she and Eisenberg remain lazy losers we can love, Bonnie and Clyde for a more laid-back generation.
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