I’m starting to notice that there’s been a lot of spy movies coming out this summer. I know I sort of brought this up in last week’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. review, but I didn’t really start thinking about it in a larger sense til this week. We’ve had that movie, Mission: Impossible, and the aptly named Spy, with the new James Bond film still to come. I don’t know if this has always been a trend or if I’m just noticing it now because I’ve got this new and lucrative writing gig going on. What I’m saying is that we should all anticipate the surprise release of The Bourne Conspiracy, a movie in which, I can only assume, Matt Damon spends two hours just punching 9/11 Truthers in the dick. Oh yeah, and American Ultra comes out this week. I should probably talk about that for a bit, right?
American Ultra stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mike Howell, a stoner living in a small West Virginia town with his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). After killing a pair of assassins with only a cup of soup and a spoon, Mike learns that he is a highly trained government agent who has had his memories washed, and that a young CIA official (Topher Grace) wants him dead. Together with Phoebe and the woman who recruited and trained him (Connie Britton), Mike has to survive waves of literally crazy super soldiers and find a way to escape his predicament.
I brought up the Bourne series earlier, and that’s probably the best comparison to Ultra. Eisenberg’s character, like Damon’s, can make a weapon out of anything, but this is a comedy so he frequently is forced to use the most ridiculous objects possible, such as the aforementioned cup of soup and a shit load of illegal fireworks.
Ultra also subverts traditional espionage cliches by making Eisenberg largely incompetent outside of combat situations. Jason Bourne is the best possible human being, while Howell is easily distracted, not very smart, and almost always does the opposite of what he should be doing. All of this would make for an annoying character if Eisenberg wasn’t such a charming dude. Even when he’s at his most slovenly, you can’t help but like the guy. And it works all the better because his character is written so well. Everything that he does feels real and consistent, I love it.
Comedy and Eisenberg aside, the other big thing to talk about in American Ultra is the level of violence. I cannot remember a recent action movie to have this degree of viscera on display. Its closer to an Eli Roth movie than almost anything else in that regard. Maybe it’s just because we’ve become so accustomed to PG-13 action films and their lack of blood, that any amount of gore feels revelatory. Its great to have a good, old fashioned shoot-em-up where people get the shit kicked out of them and everything feels like it has real consequences. Its so goddamned refreshing!
My one big complaint with this movie would have to come with Stewart’s character. This isn’t anything against Stewart herself. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that she’s a better actress than the Twilight series allowed her to be. She shows a great range here and has wonderful chemistry with Eisenberg. The problem is with the writing. Her character has a big reveal halfway through the movie, and it leads to a lot of plot holes. It causes her motivations and reactions is the beginning of the film to become suspect and confusing, and so much is left unexplained. It just seems like an odd oversight for a movie where everything else was so well done.
American Ultra isn’t the best movie of the year. It probably won’t be on a lot of Best of 2015 lists or be remembered as fondly as a lot of other stoner comedies. But its fun and unique in ways that definitely make it worth the watch. And did I mention the violence? Yeah, you should see it for no other reason than it might be the single most bloodily awesome film of the year. And if you don’t like blood as much as I do, well, then you’re probably just a much more well adjusted person than I am. Congratulations on being better than me. I hope it brings you much joy.
