Synopsis
Mike is an unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe, is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal sleeper agent. In the blink of an eye, as his secret past comes back to haunt him, Mike is thrust into the middle of a deadly government operation and is forced to summon his inner action-hero in order to survive.
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Cast
- Jesse EisenbergMike Howell
- Kristen StewartPhoebe Larson
- Topher GraceAdrian Yates
- Connie BrittonVictoria Lasseter
- Walton GogginsLaugher
- John LeguizamoRose
- Bill PullmanKrueger
- Tony HaleAgent Peter Douglas
- Stuart GreerSheriff Bernie Watts
- Michael PapajohnOtis
Recommendations
- 100
Village Voice
Nima Nourizadeh’s American Ultra is a bloody valentine attached to a bomb. It’s violent, brash, inventive and horrific, and perhaps the most romantic film of the year. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
Check your brain at the popcorn-butter pump in the lobby and enjoy it. - 60
Screen Daily
Part stoner comedy, midnight movie, outsiders’ love story and ultraviolent B-movie, this intriguing film is given real soul by stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, even if director Nima Nourizadeh’s ambitions end up being more laudable than the results. - 58
IndieWire
The bone-crunching action and relentlessly blood-letting feels out of place, and as those sequences start appearing with more frequency, the film loses much of its rangy charm. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
A genre mash that's mildly amusing until it can't think of anything else to do besides flop around in the deep end of conspicuous gore. - 50
Variety
Too often plays like an earnest yet unsatisfying adaptation of a cult graphic novel, with most of the charm lost in translation. - 40
TheWrap
Nourizadeh and Landis are clearly going for a Tarantino level of blood-soaked dark humor, and while their cast is game, the film’s bursts of violence grow tiresome as its plot gets more and more ludicrous and hard to swallow. - 40
Time Out
Artless and unpleasant, this is the kind of late-summer swill that gives August a bad name.
