So surprise, the new movie about two stoners who get activated by the C.I.A. is not a comedy. I just wanted to get that out in the open first. This is not a funny movie, like they make it seem like in the trailers. This is a hardcore action movie, with almost no message and no reason to really exist. Take two of the most disliked people in Hollywood, put them together, and make them muted by making them stoned, in love and understanding of each others flaws and mental issues. Then blow it up. That is pretty much what American Ultra is, and I am not sure why it is a movie, except to maybe entertain you, which it can do, if you are ok with everything else wrong with it.
You have Mike and Phoebe, who live in West Virginia of all places, and who are useless pot heads. He has major mental issues, and she for some reason stays with him. Their lives seem awful and the choices they make are dumb. Especially Phoebe, who like all Kristen Stewart characters seems to make really dumb decisions because of a boy that is not good for her. Then some C.I.A. shit happens which does not make any sense at all until the last like 5 minutes of the movie and even then is a really weak plot, then the movie ends. In between those two parts of the movie is guns and knives and stuff. So if you are ok with ignoring the plot, and the characters, then you might have an ok time with this movie, because as an action movie it is fun.
In the moment I had fun with it, but if you think about the movie a little bit more and step back and see it for what it was. It is of pretty poor quality, made shiny by some fun action scenes that barely keep it together. I think maybe you can rent this movie or wait for it to be on HBO. I do not think you need to go see it this weekend, it isn’t the movie you thought it was anyway.
