Streaming Movie Review: American Ultra

Whether you’re a cord-cutter or just use streaming services to find movies you somehow missed, Hanna takes on the onerous task of watching movies that may be good on the free screen but perhaps mainly because they’re free.

I’ll start out with the fact that critics and many movie watchers didn’t like American Ultra, but I’m not sure they gave it a thorough look.

I and most moviegoers missed this slacker action comedy/romance but I couldn’t begin to explain why.

Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) spend the first part of the movie smoking dope and dealing with Mike’s string of screw-ups while he tries to ask for Phoebe’s hand in marriage.

It’s a wonder she stays with him as Mike can’t do anything right and Phoebe spends the first third of the flick fixing them.

That all changes when a mysterious woman walks into the convenience store where Mike works and says a few confusing words to him.

Suddenly, Mike is able to kill without thought and perform tasks he would never have imagined.

The code words turned Mike into a highly-trained CIA asset and the CIA doesn’t want him on the loose. The rest of the film features fantastic action sequences and the relationship tension created between Phoebe and her now superhuman boyfriend.

The height of the movie lands Phoebe and Mike in direct violent conflict with the agency that wants Mike dead.

This is a wild action fest with a bit of romance and an interesting (albeit badly hidden) plot twist that is worth watching with friends which give it my rating of Dinner and a Movie.

Dinner and a Movie: Films in this category are good for date night if still in theaters or home movie nights with the family if they’ve dropped to on demand or streaming.