American Ultra review – stoner turns state killer to little comic effect

This stoner/secret agent mash-up of The Bourne Identity and Pineapple Express promises cross-generic thrills and doesn’t skimp on crunchy violence, but comedy is in far shorter supply. Jesse Eisenberg is the hapless convenience-store clerk who discovers he has super-combat skills; Kristen Stewart is his long-suffering girlfriend with hidden secrets of her own.

At its best, Max Landis’s script channels some of the anarchic energy of Into the Night (which his father, John, directed), but too often American Ultra looks like 17 different movies thrown into a body bag and left to duke it out. Topher Grace and Connie Britton have snippy fun as warring CIA drones each trying to manage an increasingly explosive situation, but Project X director Nima Nourizadeh seems too seduced by the action set pieces to keep his eyes on the characters.