Violent CIA action thriller 'Ultra' nasty
Crass, shallow, nasty and ugly, "American Ultra" devolves from a promising graphic-novel-like start into a hard-R-rated bloodbath just cartoony enough to stave off bolting from the movie theater to take a shower.
The idea behind Max "Chronicle" Landis' problematic screenplay serves the universal fantasy that a super hero, or at least a super spy, can be inside anyone, even a super stoner like Mike Howell, played by Jesse Eisenberg.
"American Ultra" opens with a bloodied Mike chained to an interrogation desk where a man in a tie wants to know what happened.
Time to cue the annoying, nonessential and lazy voice-over narration to take us back a few days to when we witness Mike working at a menial job managing a small-town, all-night convenience store in rural West Virginia. He lives with his equally stoner girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart, whose listless delivery and reserved manner actually match her character).
Poor Mike doesn't have much, but his good heart prompts him to plan a deserved vacation to Hawaii where he wants to propose to Phoebe with a ring he's been carting around. But a sudden panic attack keeps him from leaving town.
One night, Mike sees two guys messing with his junker car in the parking lot. He calls them out. They come at him with guns and knives.
Instantly, fireworks go off in Mike's irises and he inexplicably turns into Bruce Lee, sticking a spoon into one man's neck and effortlessly dispatching his partner.
Whoa! Where did that come from?
This could have been a terrific "wow!" moment in Nima Nourizadeh's action thriller, a surprise that draws us into the story's intrigue. But that attractive piece of foreshadowing has been compromised by Landis' screenplay, which has already revealed Mike to be a sleeper CIA operative unaware of his past or training.
At the CIA Headquarters in Langley (shown to us twice to make sure stragglers in the audience know where we are), CIA agent Adrian Yates (Topher Grace, tapping his inner control freak) takes charge and orders, for no particular reason, that their "asset" Mike must be killed now! now! now! over the objections of sane CIA supervisor Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton).
Keeping things low-key, Yates' henchpeople wipe out the entire sheriff's office and blow things up real good while Mike and Phoebe make an unlikely escape.
The rest of "American Ultra" traces Mike and Phoebe as they stay on the run from Yates' bumbling minions, all of whom apparently couldn't pass marksmanship classes as they rack up enough spent ammo to deplete the CIA's annual budget for bullets.
Eisenberg makes a strange choice for an action hero (as did Michael Cera in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"), but his stoner persona is perfection. Mike resembles a meth lab operator from a bad 1970s drug trip drama.
John Leguizamo contributes a zany performance as Rose, a walking tattoo collection and Mike's connection for illegal fireworks, among other illicit products.
Walton Goggins also provides a memorably over-the-top performance as Yates' hired hitman, a cackling, obviously masochistic assassin who would fit nicely in an episode of the goofy 1960s TV series "Batman" - as directed by Joe Carnahan.
"American Ultra" has its moments of black humor and adrenaline-inspiring kills - lots of objectified men being shot in the faces at point-blank range - but offers nothing substantially dramatic to hang them on.
Eisenberg and Stewart go through the motions of pretending to be a committed couple, but they share so little chemistry that their on-screen relationship feels as contrived as the overtly sadistic action sequences.
The ridiculous plot would only work if Nourizadeh, trained as a director for TV commercials and music videos, approached the material with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
In "American Ultra," Nourizadeh merely rips it out and lets the blood squibs fly.
“American Ultra”
★ ½
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo
Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh
Other: A Lionsgate Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, sexual situations and violence. 99 minutes