American Ultra 2015

Wesley Morris, Grantland: The movie has the sleepy vibe of some of those scuzzy '90s crime thrillers. It aspires to Natural Born Killers, but has barely enough competence to get close to something like Feeling Minnesota. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: What begins as a clever action-comedy a la "Pineapple Express" or Eisenberg's earlier "Zombieland" devolves into a standard shoot'em-up, with gore splashed around to distract us from the dearth of wit. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Too often plays like an earnest yet unsatisfying adaptation of a cult graphic novel, with most of the charm lost in translation. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: It's demented, occasionally inspired, and often very funny. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: "American Ultra" is doodles in a math-class notebook given a budget, and although it's frequently as stupid as it sounds, it's amiable enough to pass the bowl around. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Eisenberg and Stewart have both found romantic partners with whom they have chemistry (some provided by controlled substances). Tender, forgiving, and sexy, they're the hottest couple on screen at the moment. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: You never fully buy "American Ultra" - you're not supposed to - but it's a decent ride with some nice turns. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Eisenberg usually plays geeky and studious, not gallant and studly. He's Mark Zuckerberg, not Jason Statham. But he gets to stride both sides of the street in the disposable yet mildly enjoyable riff on the spy-movie formula. Read more

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: Check your brain at the popcorn-butter pump in the lobby and enjoy it. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Ultra works by making a potentially messy story rather simple, and by using its carnage as an extension of its comedy. It has no interest in piling on plot minutiae. It's too busy getting to the next bit of mayhem. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A genre mash that's mildly amusing until it can't think of anything else to do besides flop around in the deep end of conspicuous gore. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: It turns out to be a disappointingly underdeveloped film that its makers, chiefly director Nima Nourizadeh and writer Max Landis, must have thought could coast by on a cool but half-baked idea. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: A bloody valentine attached to a bomb. It's violent, brash, inventive and horrific, and perhaps the most romantic film of the year. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: An amusing idea, but the ugly violence and weepy dramatics effectively kill any comedic buzz. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Nourizadeh, working with a script by Max Landis, plays Mike's bloody violence like visual guitar riffs, and approaches the martial-arts set pieces with heavily underlined wit. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: I just wish there was a little more feeling, and a little less flash. And a lot more of Landis' dialogue, and a lot less of what feels like Nourizadeh's audition for an even bigger, dumber movie. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: [It] becomes a glib, juvenile exercise in violence for its own sake, squandering the lived-in vibe between Eisenberg and his co-star, Kristen Stewart. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: "American Ultra" is an American-style movie that needed more ultra. Read more

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: A diverting summer action adventure with occasional laughs ... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: As misfires go, American Ultra can at least claim not to be boring. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: "American Ultra" tries to combine a sweet, slacker romance with a slick, super-violent action flick. If that sounds jarring to you, that's probably because it is. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The movie's twisty charm gives way to gory splatter, but Eisenberg and Stewart stay appealing to the last. Read more

Erik Lundegaard, Seattle Times: The tenderness in some of the early scenes took me by surprise. But then gore and general cartoonishness took over. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: It's all quite fun to watch, thanks in large part to the script by Max Landis, whose ability to find humor in the middle of a crisis meshes well with Nourizadeh's kinetic directing style. Read more

Seth Stevenson, Slate: In the end, American Ultra is doomed by its nondescript script. Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The brightest star of this picture is screenwriter Max Landis, who pulls off a masterful mashup of action, comedy and romance, with bits of animation tossed in. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: American Ultra has its moments, but it's mostly a waste of good weed and better actors. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The director and screenwriter lose their way, allowing the film's sensibility to degenerate from outrageous to cartoony, and piling up plot contrivances and corpses in stacks so high that they obscure whatever charms the film once might have held. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: Artless and unpleasant, this is the kind of late-summer swill that gives August a bad name. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: Take Dazed and Confused and mix it up a bit with James Bond, and you have a general idea of where American Ultra is headed. Read more

Brian Truitt, USA Today: It exists to entertain in its own oddball universe, munchies optional. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie evaporates in the mind, but Stewart and Eisenberg have real movie-star chemistry. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "American Ultra" has a clever premise. But it misses several opportunities to at least comment on, if not skewer, the spy movies that it only halfheartedly pokes fun at. Read more