We all love a stoner comedy. Don’t we? Well, sadly Nima Nourizadeh’s deadbeat take on The Bourne Identity isn’t so much a comedy as a would-be satire, muddling through on an unfunny script and a bizarre depiction of hypnotised sleeper agents and shady CIA officers recruiting assassins from mental institutes. It’s saved by its performances, particularly from Eisenberg who brings a refreshing naivety to the genre, but even with all its explosions and fireworks, American Ultra is well and truly wasted.
American Ultra | Directed by Nima Nourizadeh (USA 2015) with Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart. Starts October 15
Originally published in issue #142, October 2015.