With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
American Ultra (Nima Nourizadeh)
From its first few shots, it’s clear that American Ultra is removed from the relatively grounded drama of Greg Mottola’s underrated Adventureland, the last film that paired Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. We first meet Eisenberg’s bloodied and beaten Mike Howell detained and chained to a table in a septic interrogation room. As an agent throws photographic evidence of...
American Ultra (Nima Nourizadeh)
From its first few shots, it’s clear that American Ultra is removed from the relatively grounded drama of Greg Mottola’s underrated Adventureland, the last film that paired Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. We first meet Eisenberg’s bloodied and beaten Mike Howell detained and chained to a table in a septic interrogation room. As an agent throws photographic evidence of...
- 8/12/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
American Ultra (Nima Nourizadeh)
From its first few shots, it’s clear that American Ultra is removed from the relatively grounded drama of Greg Mottola’s underrated Adventureland, the last film that paired Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. We first meet Eisenberg’s bloodied and beaten Mike Howell detained and chained to a table in a septic interrogation room. As an agent throws photographic evidence of...
American Ultra (Nima Nourizadeh)
From its first few shots, it’s clear that American Ultra is removed from the relatively grounded drama of Greg Mottola’s underrated Adventureland, the last film that paired Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. We first meet Eisenberg’s bloodied and beaten Mike Howell detained and chained to a table in a septic interrogation room. As an agent throws photographic evidence of...
- 11/13/2015
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
What if Jason Bourne lost his memory not because of head trauma, but because he was a massive stoner? That’s the question screenwriter Max Landis (Chronicle, the upcoming Victor Frankenstein) asks with American Ultra, and he and director Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) provide a pretty entertaining answer, for the most part at least, with this intriguing stoner comedy/action hybrid. Jesse Eisenberg is Mike Howell, an unmotivated stoner happy to waste his days getting high with his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). What he doesn’t know is that he is the last remaining subject of a CIA program to create lethal sleeper agents, which sees him targeted for termination by smarmy company man Adrian Yates (Topher Grace). With his programming hidden beneath a haze of pot smoke, Mike must take down the highly trained government agents sent to kill him and save the day. So, yeah, American Ultra is pretty high (geddit?...
- 9/5/2015
- by noreply@blogger.com (Tom White)
- www.themoviebit.com
It’s one joke dragged out for 90 minutes, and while it’s not entirely unamusing, the comedy feels mired in the same stoner fog as its slacker protagonist. I’m “biast” (pro): like Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
It’s one joke — stoner slacker Jesse Eisenberg is actually a sleeper badass covert operative, har har — dragged out for 90 minutes. And while it’s not entirely unamusing, the fact that the trailer tells the same story in two minutes and doesn’t feature any fewer jokes than the film itself tells you all you need to know. Mike Howell (Eisenberg: Rio 2) suffers from panic attacks, a kind of agoraphobia that doesn’t allow him to leave his small West Virginia town, and a complete and utter lack of ambition. But life isn’t too bad,...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
It’s one joke — stoner slacker Jesse Eisenberg is actually a sleeper badass covert operative, har har — dragged out for 90 minutes. And while it’s not entirely unamusing, the fact that the trailer tells the same story in two minutes and doesn’t feature any fewer jokes than the film itself tells you all you need to know. Mike Howell (Eisenberg: Rio 2) suffers from panic attacks, a kind of agoraphobia that doesn’t allow him to leave his small West Virginia town, and a complete and utter lack of ambition. But life isn’t too bad,...
- 9/4/2015
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Jesse Eisenberg is the unlikely action hero at the centre of American Ultra, a fast-talking, hyper-violent action-comedy about a stoner who turns out to be a Jason Bourne-like sleeper agent. Making it an Adventureland reunion is Kristen Stewart, onboard as Eisenberg's equally-blazed girlfriend Phoebe.
Eisenberg plays Mike Howell in typically fidgety fashion, working a dead-end job at a convenience store while he tries to find the right moment to propose to Phoebe. When the CIA puts a kill order on him (Mike was part of the defunct "Ultra" programme before getting his memory wiped), old instincts kick in and before long he's turned a spoon into a deadly weapon to take down a pair of government goons.
Staging a fake viral outbreak, the government seal off Mike's small West Virginia town to pen him in and finish the job. Topher Grace's conniving agent Yates pulls the strings from Langley...
Eisenberg plays Mike Howell in typically fidgety fashion, working a dead-end job at a convenience store while he tries to find the right moment to propose to Phoebe. When the CIA puts a kill order on him (Mike was part of the defunct "Ultra" programme before getting his memory wiped), old instincts kick in and before long he's turned a spoon into a deadly weapon to take down a pair of government goons.
Staging a fake viral outbreak, the government seal off Mike's small West Virginia town to pen him in and finish the job. Topher Grace's conniving agent Yates pulls the strings from Langley...
- 9/2/2015
- Digital Spy
“American Ultra” is this August’s attempt to reel in audiences still hungry for that last bit of relentless, momentous summer action and thirsty for an original story. It succeeds moderately well at delivering both. The film follows lost soul/American slacker yute Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg). A kind, but broken burnout who spends his days manning the register at a Cash ‘n’ Carry convenience store, getting high in the empty parking lot, and sketching out the various adventures of his unrealized comic creation “Apollo Ape.” His nights pass with his beloved Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) in their not quite rundown, but “lived in” stoner love shack. Mike is crippled by paralyzing panic attacks whenever he attempts to travel and is convinced that he’s hobbling Phoebe’s full potential. She does, in fact, seem all but saintly, initially. Phoebe functions as what one character describes as Mike’s “girlfriend, mother,...
- 8/21/2015
- by Roth Cornet
- Hitfix
American Ultra
Written by Max Landis
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh
USA, 2015
Take the amnesiac spy from the Bourne franchise, throw him into the anarchic nihilism of Kick-Ass, add some romantic idealism and then bubble it all through the comedic sensibilities of Pineapple Express and you have something that approximates American Ultra. As entertaining as it is flawed, director Nima Nourizadeh’s film is sure to divide audiences with its haphazard mix of ultra-violence and heartfelt romance. A gleefully-belligerent experiment in style that thumbs its nose at your expectations.
Can a pair of hopeless romantics survive in a modern world consumed by security, surveillance, and sarcasm? Not if one of them is a merciless killing machine for the CIA! Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a well-meaning stoner who just wants to find the right moment to propose to his long-suffering girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Those plans seem permanently derailed when a...
Written by Max Landis
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh
USA, 2015
Take the amnesiac spy from the Bourne franchise, throw him into the anarchic nihilism of Kick-Ass, add some romantic idealism and then bubble it all through the comedic sensibilities of Pineapple Express and you have something that approximates American Ultra. As entertaining as it is flawed, director Nima Nourizadeh’s film is sure to divide audiences with its haphazard mix of ultra-violence and heartfelt romance. A gleefully-belligerent experiment in style that thumbs its nose at your expectations.
Can a pair of hopeless romantics survive in a modern world consumed by security, surveillance, and sarcasm? Not if one of them is a merciless killing machine for the CIA! Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a well-meaning stoner who just wants to find the right moment to propose to his long-suffering girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Those plans seem permanently derailed when a...
- 8/20/2015
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Rolled into a joint made with the kief leftover from a dozen different movies, American Ultra is a natural underachiever. An early action scene, in which our protagonist average Joe brutally dispatches of two government goons through unconscious reflex, is a familiar one. So too are many of the events that follow, like when a military liaison explains to his CIA superior (Topher Grace, delightful) why their hit on a former asset has gone pear-shaped. “How is he still alive?” yells Grace’s pissy and psychotic company man. “Well, sir,” replies the Army brass, “he had a spoon.”
Deadpan statements shine like whites beneath the wide, spectral black light of American Ultra’s influences. It’s a paranoid pothead thriller (The Bourne Indica) that’s been hybridized with a sweetly simple relationship comedy. It’s also a violent action vehicle, a dopey stoner romp, and a Looney Tunes vision of surveillance state overreach.
Deadpan statements shine like whites beneath the wide, spectral black light of American Ultra’s influences. It’s a paranoid pothead thriller (The Bourne Indica) that’s been hybridized with a sweetly simple relationship comedy. It’s also a violent action vehicle, a dopey stoner romp, and a Looney Tunes vision of surveillance state overreach.
- 8/20/2015
- by Sam Woolf
- We Got This Covered
The Long Spliff Goodnight: Nourizadeh’s Stoner Action Flick Mixes Kooky with Convention
Comprised of a tangle of similar narrative threads spliced together from a variety of genres and time periods, Nima Nourizadeh’s sophomore directorial effort American Ultra is generally more often entertaining than not, though considering the significant reputations of its leads and zany array of the supporting cast, it could have been better served with a bit more outlandishness than the conventional acts it delivers. As it stands, the success of this rural set conspiracy comedy depends mostly on the low-key charm this rather approximately defined scenario allows to transpire, but it ultimately isn’t goofy enough to allow for the cult notoriety something like this promises. As scripted by Max Landis (again returning to the landscape of youthful, self-reliant outsiders as in his 2012 Chronicle), there’s not a whole lot of surprise, but much like its drug of choice,...
Comprised of a tangle of similar narrative threads spliced together from a variety of genres and time periods, Nima Nourizadeh’s sophomore directorial effort American Ultra is generally more often entertaining than not, though considering the significant reputations of its leads and zany array of the supporting cast, it could have been better served with a bit more outlandishness than the conventional acts it delivers. As it stands, the success of this rural set conspiracy comedy depends mostly on the low-key charm this rather approximately defined scenario allows to transpire, but it ultimately isn’t goofy enough to allow for the cult notoriety something like this promises. As scripted by Max Landis (again returning to the landscape of youthful, self-reliant outsiders as in his 2012 Chronicle), there’s not a whole lot of surprise, but much like its drug of choice,...
- 8/19/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
From Bourne to Total Recall, the amnesiac spy trope has been used over and over to put the protagonist and viewer in the same boat. But is that getting old?
Everybody wants to be a secret agent. That’s the draw behind American Ultra, in which small-town stoner loser Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) discovers that he’s a sleeper agent with amazing assassin powers of destruction. The trailer is a series of comic set pieces in which Mike, much to his own surprise, kills people with a spoon, frying pan and other sundries. “These sleeper agents live among us. They could be your friend. Your family. Or the person you least expect.” Awesome, dude.
Related: American Ultra review: bong ho action comedy puts Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in a stupor
Continue reading...
Everybody wants to be a secret agent. That’s the draw behind American Ultra, in which small-town stoner loser Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) discovers that he’s a sleeper agent with amazing assassin powers of destruction. The trailer is a series of comic set pieces in which Mike, much to his own surprise, kills people with a spoon, frying pan and other sundries. “These sleeper agents live among us. They could be your friend. Your family. Or the person you least expect.” Awesome, dude.
Related: American Ultra review: bong ho action comedy puts Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in a stupor
Continue reading...
- 8/19/2015
- by Noah Berlatsky
- The Guardian - Film News
From its first few shots, it’s clear that American Ultra is removed from the relatively grounded drama of Greg Mottola’s underrated Adventureland, the last film that paired Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. We first meet Eisenberg’s bloodied and beaten Mike Howell detained and chained to a table in a septic interrogation room. As an agent throws photographic evidence of […]...
- 8/18/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Jesse Eisenberg plays a stoned shop assistant with latent special agent skills in Nima Nourizadeh’s weak rip of The Bourne Identity
Summer 2015: the year half-cocked, medium-budget spins on The Bourne Identity made their way to the American theaters. First there was Self/Less, in which an aging Donald Trump-ish developer transfers his consciousness into a Ryan Reynolds special forces fighter, and now there’s American Ultra.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, a convenience store clerk in Nowheresville, West Virginia, whose primary activities include tokin’ weed, being a bit of an anxious space-case and not-deserving his saintly girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). One day bad men come to eliminate Mike, but before they do a strange woman comes and “activates” him with a subliminal phrase. Instinctually, he knows how to turn a spoon into a killbot weapon. The very same one with which he was planning to slurp down some Ramen.
Summer 2015: the year half-cocked, medium-budget spins on The Bourne Identity made their way to the American theaters. First there was Self/Less, in which an aging Donald Trump-ish developer transfers his consciousness into a Ryan Reynolds special forces fighter, and now there’s American Ultra.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, a convenience store clerk in Nowheresville, West Virginia, whose primary activities include tokin’ weed, being a bit of an anxious space-case and not-deserving his saintly girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). One day bad men come to eliminate Mike, but before they do a strange woman comes and “activates” him with a subliminal phrase. Instinctually, he knows how to turn a spoon into a killbot weapon. The very same one with which he was planning to slurp down some Ramen.
- 8/18/2015
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
How high is too high? Find out in Nima Nourizadeh's American Ultra – a fast-paced action comedy from the warped mind of Max Landis, writer of Chronicle - where a small town stoner comes face to gun with his own unlikely past as a covert government sleeper agent. In the film, Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) - an ill-fated burnout - and his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), are about to have... Read More...
- 8/18/2015
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Well, it's finally August, and while the summer movie season isn't completely over it might as well be. This article was a difficult one to put together, because there just isn't much to recommend this month. But you know what, that's okay, I think I managed to pull together five solid titles for the "must-see" section, and lucky for us the fall festival season is just around the corner, which means things are about to heat up exponentially on the prestige movie front just in time to compensate for things cooling down outside as the seasons change. (I should note here, it is currently 106 degrees fahrenheit here in the desert, and the thought of things cooling down is marvelous, but also very premature.) We are coming off what turned out to be a pretty solid month last month, in my opinion, as I settled back into my routine after a...
- 7/31/2015
- by Jordan Benesh
- Rope of Silicon
For a film that's still a month away, it seems American Ultra has had more than its share of promotion and today a new trailer and the film's poster arrives. The film stars Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg with Eisenberg playing Mike Howell, a dopey, shaggy-haired store clerk about to pop the question to his girlfriend, Pheobe (Stewart), when the clandestine government operation that has totally Manchurian Candidated him to be a super-soldier comes calling. The major buzzkill turns into actual kills as Mike must defend himself from enemy agents and stay sober enough to rescue Phoebe, too. Project X helmer Nima Nourizadeh directs with Walt Goggins, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Topher Grace and Tony Hale co-starring. The film hits theatres on August 21, check out the trailer and poster below. sb id="1545011" height="360" width="640"...
- 7/20/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
"The red capes are coming, the red capes are coming," Jesse Eisenberg sneers in the new trailer for "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice." While we have yet to see the abilities his version of Lex Luthor will demonstrate in the superhero flick, his stoner character Mike Howell from "American Ultra" might be able to hold his own against with the Man Of Steel. Read More: Jesse Eisenberg Says His Lex Luthor and 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice' Is Psychologically Based Co-starring Kristen Stewart, the movie follows a slacker who discovers he's actually a Jason Bourne-esque sleeper agent, and the government wants their little project shut down. But of course, he won't go down with a fight. Here's the official synopsis: American Ultra is a fast-paced action comedy about Mike (Eisenberg), a seemingly hapless and unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe (Stewart), is suddenly turned upside down.
- 7/20/2015
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Is your best friend a government-trained supersoldier? How about your mom, or your algebra teacher? You'll never know until they're activated. Small-town stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) didn't know he was a sleeper agent until he was activated -- and that was a big mistake. American Ultra gets activated in theaters August 21. Don't miss the exclusive action-packed trailer debut of American Ultra. And check out the debut of the explosive new poster...
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- 7/20/2015
- by affiliates@fandango.com
- Fandango
Watching this latest clip from the upcoming action comedy American Ultra – in which actor Jesse Eisenberg depicts some extreme anxiety – it’s impossible not to wonder whether he had this exact reaction when he realized he had recently compared the San Diego Comic-Con with genocide. He has, evidently, been on a steep learning curve in terms of dealing with movie promotion, so hopefully his efforts on behalf of this new movie will feature fewer references to horrific international war crimes, and more emphasis on the actual project at hand – not least because this one might need some talking up.
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Project X), and written by Max Landis (Chronicle), the film centres on Mike Howell (Eisenberg), who is a renowned stoner, wanting to marry his stoner girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). He has no recollection of the fact that he is, in fact, a highly skilled government agent who...
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Project X), and written by Max Landis (Chronicle), the film centres on Mike Howell (Eisenberg), who is a renowned stoner, wanting to marry his stoner girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). He has no recollection of the fact that he is, in fact, a highly skilled government agent who...
- 7/16/2015
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
It was back in 2009 that Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart first joined forces on the big screen, playing male and female leads in Greg Mottola.s period, coming-of-age tale Adventureland. After a number of years apart, now the two actors are coming back together, but instead of playing two young people falling in love against the backdrop of a low-rent amusement park, this time around they.re dodging bullets and kicking all kinds of ass in director Nima Nourizadeh.s American Ultra. Based on an original screenplay by Max Landis (Chronicle), American Ultra tells the story of Mike Howell (Eisenberg) . a stoner convenience store clerk who finds his happiness in the love he shares with his girlfriend, Phoebe (Stewart). What Mike doesn.t know, however, is that he was actually at one point part of a secret government program that turned him into a sleeper agent. When he is "activated...
- 6/25/2015
- cinemablend.com
Jesse Eisenberg is the world's most dangerous stoner in an explosion-filled trailer for American Ultra.
Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star as a marijuana-loving couple whose sleepy existence is upended when Us government agents begin hunting them.
Long-haired hippy Mike Howell (Eisenberg) can't figure out why he suddenly has the know-how to expertly kill trained agents, but he puts those skills to use when he goes on the run with his girlfriend Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart).
Connie Britton and Topher Grace play the sinister government agents tracking Mike, while John Leguizamo is his over-the-top drug dealer Rose.
The Max Landis-written comedy is being brought to the big screen by Project X director Nima Nourizadeh.
Eisenberg and Stewart will reunite again this summer to shoot a new comedy from acclaimed filmmaker Woody Allen.
American Ultra opens on August 21 in the Us and August 28 in the UK.
Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star as a marijuana-loving couple whose sleepy existence is upended when Us government agents begin hunting them.
Long-haired hippy Mike Howell (Eisenberg) can't figure out why he suddenly has the know-how to expertly kill trained agents, but he puts those skills to use when he goes on the run with his girlfriend Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart).
Connie Britton and Topher Grace play the sinister government agents tracking Mike, while John Leguizamo is his over-the-top drug dealer Rose.
The Max Landis-written comedy is being brought to the big screen by Project X director Nima Nourizadeh.
Eisenberg and Stewart will reunite again this summer to shoot a new comedy from acclaimed filmmaker Woody Allen.
American Ultra opens on August 21 in the Us and August 28 in the UK.
- 5/28/2015
- Digital Spy
What do you get when you cross Jason Bourne with Pineapple Express? No, you do not get a pineapple grenade. You get American Ultra, which finds Jesse Eisenberg as a stoner with a slightly violent past. Check out the trailer, which is restricted largely thanks to some sweary language from the likes of John Leguizamo and Topher Grace. The film, written by Chronicle/Victor Frankenstein’s Max Landis, finds Eisenberg as Mike Howell, an easy-going stoner content to work a boring job in a convenience store and live a happy life with girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). He’s so settled that he’s about to propose to her, but then his life becomes very complicated. As in bullets-flying-and-cars-going-boom complicated.Mike, you see, is a government asset, a trained killer who has been in sleeper mode, but is now considered a liability and targeted for termination. Yet it’ll take more...
- 5/28/2015
- EmpireOnline
Jessie Eisenberg is a stoned-cold killer in the first American Ultra trailer -- emphasis on the stoned. If you thought Seth Rogen and James Franco made the perfect stoner movie duo in Pineapple Express, just wait until you get a load of Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in what likely will be your new favorite stoner-comedy-action extravaganza. Watch the red-band trailer below and be mindful of naughty words and Nsfw content. Yahoo Movies debuted the American Ultra trailer and it looks like a fun and wild ride. Eisenberg plays Mike Howell. On the surface, he may seem like your average convenience store counter clerk who gets stoned all the time, but in reality he's a sleeper agent for the government. There's just rarely a moment when he's not baked off his ass, so he processes things -- including his activation and orders -- a bit more slow than other operatives. All...
- 5/28/2015
- cinemablend.com
The new red band trailer for American Ultra gives us a sneak peak at the new action-comedy from Nima Nourizadeh (Project X). American Ultra stars Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Connie Britton.
- 5/28/2015
- by Jazz Tangcay
- AwardsDaily.com
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