Friday, August 28, 2015

Movies: American Ultra



 

(Drivebycuriosity) - It seems there is a deluge of super agent movies. The action comedy "American Ultra" is the newest of them (imdb). What makes this movie special? It is Jesse Eisenberg. He plays a stoner who involuntarily has to employ his extraordinary but latent martial skills against deadly enemies (this is a spoiler free blog: You can read a synopsis here wikipedia).

Eisenberg is known for impersonating nerdish & brooding guys ("Social Network").  Watching this actor in the role of a super agent is priceless. His acting is the perfect "understatement". Eisenberg beats Mat Damon´s "Bourne", whom his character copies, by length. The scenes in which he response to his attackers stoned, surprised and  reluctant are hilarous and funny. Kristen Stewart, as the stoner´s girlfriend, fits well into this scenario. Both actors showed enough action movie skills . Walter Goggins, as one of the villains, also impressed.

The fast paced film could been seen as a well done "Bourne" series parody, but it is also a persiflage of the whole genre of troubled agents, which started maybe with "Three Days of the Condor". I detected a lot of others influences, for instance "Old Boy" and "True Romance". Director Nima Nourizadeh created an entertaining spectacle, I hope to see more by him.

Anyway, "American Ultra" had a disappointing start at the US Box Office but the unterrated movie  could become a sleeper hit on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

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