A stoner and his girlfriend’s sleepy, small-town existence is disrupted when his past comes back to haunt him in the form of a government operation set to wipe him out.
When a movie lazily includes the word “American” in its title, it’s already scored some negative points with me. I just think that calling your film “American” anything is half-assed at best, and at worst indicates a deep insecurity felt by residents of the United States that causes them to feel the need to label anything American as blatantly American. American Hustle, American Beauty, American Pie, American Virgin, American Sniper, American Gangster…the list goes on and on. Yeesh. Doesn’t anybody else think it’s telling that we never hear of movies called Canadian Gangster, Italian Beauty, French Sniper, or Slovakian Hustle?
Anyway, American Ultra has managed the rare feat of getting me interested in an “American” movie (oh yeah, I forgot about American Movie, which I love, by the way) in spite of my annoyance with the title convention. Talk about a great premise! What is Jason Bourne couldn’t remember anything because he was just a big stoner? It’s kind of brilliant. And although many people seem to find writer Max Landis abrasive, I’ve enjoyed his work so far and it looks like this is pretty damn funny as well. I’m on board, guys. I think this could be highly enjoyable.
American Ultra comes out August 21, 2015.