Synopsis & Review of American Ultra – American Ultra an action-comedy style film directed by a British-born Iranian-born director, Nima Nourizadeh. This film itself is his second work on the big screen after previously making a youth comedy film entitled Project X in 2012.
The film American Ultra received mixed reviews and response from critics, and audiences alike. On the Rotten Tomatoes website, this film received a rating of 43%, based on 178 reviews with a rating of 5.40/10, while the audience gave a rating of 45% and a rating of 3.1/5.
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Synopsis & Review of American Ultra
Mike Howell is a marijuana addict who works as a clerk in a supermarket. Mike has a girlfriend named Phoebe Larson, and plans to propose to her in Hawaii. Meanwhile, a CIA agent, Victoria Lasseter, receives a code alert that Mike, the sole survivor of the “Ultra Wiseman” program, being targeted by a rival agent, Adrian Yates, who developed the “Toughguy” program.
With this program, Yates has successfully trained mentally ill people to become killers. A serious threat by Yates then makes Lasseter go to Mike to “activate” him back into an agent again.
At that time, Mike met two “Toughguy” people, who immediately attacked him suddenly. However, Mike’s training code finally activates, and he immediately reacts to kill them with a spoon. When Mike meets Phoebe, Yates again sends his men, namely, Laugher, and Crane for the same purpose, namely to kill Mike.
Synopsis & Review of American Ultra: Crane Killed
The two of them evade Laugher, but manage to kill Crane. They then immediately fled to the house of Mike’s acquaintance named Rose, who was a drug dealer. Yates then quarantines the town, and places a photo of Lasseter and Mike on the local news as wanted persons.
Lasseter then tried to convince his former assistant, Petey Douglas, to drop all the weapons using a drone. Yates also attacked Rose’s house with two “Toughguy” agents and used a deadly gas. The two agents were able to kill Rose and her two bodyguards, Big Harold and Wuinzin.
But again, Mike and Phoebe managed to kill the “Toughguy” agent sent by Yates. Phoebe then saves Mike from gassed. Mike forced Phoebe to tell the truth why he could turn off the gas attack. Phoebe finally reveals to him that he also turns out to be a CIA agent, assigned to watch over him.
A Very Entertaining “Stoner” Style Film
American Ultra a spy agency-themed film that offers a ridiculous storyline and wild adventures. The sensation of watching this film not too special, but the concept of the story that is presented throughout 96 minutes still feels entertaining, and not too boring for us.
The compact duet between Jesse Eisenberg (Mike Howell) and Kristen Stewart (Phoebe Larson), as two spy agents, makes this film have more appeal. Both of them are quite capable of playing their respective characters full of ridiculous behavior, which often makes us laugh at their actions.
This film is even more interesting because Eisenberg shown as a marijuana addict character, aka stoner, who turns out to be a secret agent. The innocence and silliness of the character he builds well shown, moreover he meets a solid duet partner, Stewart, who both “crazy” with the character played by Eisenberg.
Intriguing character
In addition, Topher Grace (Adrian Yates) and Connie Britton (Victoria Lasseter) are one of the additional players that make this film look even more exciting. In simple terms, both of them present characters full of intrigue with their respective goals, where Yates wants to kill Mike, while Lasseter tries hard to protect Mike from the death threats.
The combination of acting shown by them, especially the duet between Eisenberg and Stewart, is good enough to produce an action movie full of jokes. American Ultra is indeed not a truly satisfying action comedy. However, this film is not bad to watch, and we can still compromise with all kinds of flaws, because in the end, American Ultra provides a very strong entertainment offering.