American Ultra

[2.5 stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

Did I mention I'm retired? So I can basically do whatever I want, whenever I want? That includes watching schlock movies (like this) in the middle of the day via (in this case) Amazon Prime video. I'm not proud of that, but it happened.

So: Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) and Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) live in cohabitational bliss in a small town. Their combined income allows them to scrape by, with whatever surplus going to support their prodigious marijuana habits. But there's something odd about Mike: he's psychologically unable to leave town.

As it happens, Mike doesn't remember he was the subject of an evil CIA experiment (the movie title refers back to Project MKUltra, an actual evil CIA experiment) to develop deadly assassins. His memory was wiped, and he was stuck in Nowheresville.

But now the evil part of the CIA (represented by Topher Grace) has decided to eliminate him as a loose end, and deploys a team of Ultraized assassins to do that. But the slightly-less-evil part of the CIA (represented by Connie Britton) tries to intervene to save him, which involves switching on his assassin training again. Gunplay, knifeplay, gasplay, and explosions occur.

This is your go-to movie in case you want to hear current and past TV stars (Britton and Grace) drop F-bombs like hot potatoes.

Justified fans will moan about the too-small role played by Walton Goggins as one of the "bad" guys. Also in a too-small role: John Leguizamo. He doesn't make the movie worth watching, but he is as brilliant as always when he's onscreen.


Last Modified 2024-01-26 10:20 AM EDT