See it at the Movies

AMERICAN ULTRA 

Joyce and Don Fowler
Posted 8/27/15

* ½ (Joyce)

* * ½ (Don)

(Stupid, bloody spy story) 

You could draw some similarities between “Hit Man” and “American Ultra,” basically the hero is a CIA-programmed killer. The …

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See it at the Movies

AMERICAN ULTRA 

Posted

* ½ (Joyce)

* * ½ (Don)

(Stupid, bloody spy story) 

You could draw some similarities between “Hit Man” and “American Ultra,” basically the hero is a CIA-programmed killer. The former has a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. The latter takes itself seriously.

Joyce’s take on the movie is affected by her dislike of Jesse Eisenberg’s acting, and I agree to a point. His head always seems to be in outer space.

Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, a pot-smoking, carefree, convenience store clerk living in a rundown West Virginia town with his girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). People keep trying to kill him, and it takes a while for him to figure out why.

Turns out he was a CIA “asset,” programmed to kill until they shut down the program and de-programmed. Mike keeps having these nightmares and flashbacks.

Topher Grace plays a nasty, out-of-control CIA operative who decides to kill Mike, turning the movie into one big chase and the killing of dozens of “assets.” Things and people aren’t always as they seem as the plot gets murkier and weirder, with more chases and bloody killings.

We had trouble buying into Eisenberg’s character and felt little sympathy for him, in turn wondering how Stewart’s character could stand by her man.

Rated a very big R, with bloody, gory violence, lots of drug use, excessive profanity and a little sex thrown in.

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