American Ultra
:// INTRO
I’ll say it, I love Jesse Eisenberg.
It’s always a treat to see him on screen. I did a bit of research on him and it turns out that his onscreen mannerisms could be influenced by his struggle with OCD.
Just the way he speaks and moves is amazing, I’m curious to see how much of his on screen work is improvised. I caught American Ultra lurking on the bottom of my Amazon playlist, I had to quickly load up the trailer to remember why I had put the movie on my queue in the first place.
:// STYLE
The movie drips with style, although the locations and setting are extremely “normal” what makes the movie shine is the presentation. Each shot is framed extremely well, it reminded me of a graphic novel. Almost as if influenced by my main man Jock.
Each color tone throughout the shot compliments the actors in a great way. I never knew shooting in a parking lot could deliver such amazing frames.
:// STORY
The story follows a slacker/stoner who one random day becomes “activated” as a CIA hitman, sort of like Jason Bourne, except younger.
I have seen many different genres of film, I have always cringed at love stories and on screen couples. Most of the time they are presented in a way which is extremely corny. It was a pleasant surprise to see the chemistry between Jesse and Kristen Stewart. They seemed so natural, plus you actually did end up caring for them and their relationship as the movie progressed.
:// CHARACTERS
It was nice seeing Topher Grace back on screen, the last time I saw him was in Predators and Interstellar. Seeing him as a complete jerk/kiss-ass was amazing.
American Ultra also featured none other than Venus Van Damme herself: Walton Goggins. I also last saw him in Predators, for some reason I keep swearing that I saw him in Sicario, I must be mistaken. Seeing Walton in any role is always a treat, even if he is just a background character.
Hands down John Leguizamo took the cake as my favorite character in this movie. He seemed to be channeling his character from the Pest, his talents were fully used in ‘Ultra, unlike his character in Kick Ass 2 (more of that in another post).
Stone cold killers.
:// FAVORITE MOMENTS
For the most part, the movie was pretty predictable, just like a Denzel Washington flick. You could almost time each beat with your watch, which is what made my favorite scene appear as if it came out of nowhere.
The scene takes place in Rose’s (John Leguizamo’s character’s) house. It’s a short scene where half of the characters are freaking out and the other half have no idea of what is going on. Not to mention it also features a cameo from Huell of Breaking Bad fame.