American Ultra

As I've mentioned in a plethora of reviews, comedies are certainly my favorite genre, but couple that with a certain amount of action and you have one well crafted film assuming it's well written and directed. Films such as "Midnight Run", "Foul Play", "Miss Congeniality" and even the recent "Spy" are amazingly well scripted and funny with that element of action thrown in, that we only yearn for more. Well, we have yet another one of those comedy/ action films in the form of "American Ultra".

Small-town stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) spends most of his time getting high and writing/drawing a graphic novel about a superhero monkey. What Mike doesn't know is that he was trained by the CIA to be a lethal killing machine. When Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) of the agency targets him for extermination, his former handler Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) walks into the convenience store in which Mike works and activates his latent skills, turning the mild-mannered slacker into a deadly weapon. Now, the utterly surprised Mike must use his newfound abilities to save himself and his girlfriend, Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart) from getting wasted.

Others to round out the cast are Walton Goggins as Laugher, John Leguizamo as Rose, Bill Pullman as Krueger, Tony Hale as Petey Douglas, Lasseter's assistant, Stuart Greer as Sheriff Watts, Michael Papajohn as Otis, Monique Ganderton as Crane and Nash Edgerton as Beedle.

This was directed amazingly well by virtual newcomer Nima Nourizadeh ("Project X" '12). Other than edting a documentary, he has no other experience under his belt at all, and the way Eisenberg went from seemingly calm to being in the middle of an anxiety attack which he had often, was delineated with perfection--of course, with directing someone like Eisenberg, it would make any director's job that much easier, since the actor is incredibly talented. He's one actor that cannot be pigeon-holed--comedy, drama, commercial or independent; it doesn't seem to matter with him. I have been in Stewart's corner as well as an actor since she played Julianne Moore's daughter in the recent "Still Alice". She was phenomenal. This was certainly not tough roles for either actor, but it looks as though they had a hoot doing the film. It was written with a healthy dose of originality by Max Landis ("Chronicle" '12, "Me Him Her" '15). And he's completed two other films: "Mr. Right" and "Victor Frankenstein" out this year. This is certainly a busy year for this writer, and with "Chronicle" and this flick, shows he has what it takes. This does have a couple of small slow areas, but when it revs, it soars. The premise is original, fresh, and funny--not guffaw belly laughs, but with the subtlety it exuded, it made it more funny than if it were over-the-top. Surely, this guy being a stoner, the writer had to make the character so different from what and who he really was so as to portray an extreme contrast. So doing this only made the script that much funnier.

Surely one doesn't have to see this in the multiplex to get the full impact, but it was certainly a nice way to spend an hour and a half to allow yourself to sit back and get into this comedic expose and revel at watching actors do what they do best.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                              Rated: R                              96mins.