American Ultra, built upon ridiculous premise and casting, is not only the funniest but unexpectedly one of the best action movies of the summer.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 24, 2017

A loud, ugly, slapdash combination of action movie, pot comedy, criminal romance, and conspiracy thriller - and about as lumpy and ungainly as you'd imagine such a stew would be.

| May 27, 2016

There are patches where the film stalls and crumbles under too much explanation. That's a shame, because the movie does have bite and sterling moments. But you shouldn't have to be stoned to appreciate them.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 17, 2015

It's a very August sort of movie, the kind that benefits from low, lax expectations.

| Nov 10, 2015

Nourizadeh seems too seduced by the action set pieces to keep his eyes on the characters.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 7, 2015

This is a grating, sometimes very violent comedy-thriller that suffers from a chronic identity crisis. The film can't work out whether it's a slacker romance or an all-action spy movie in the Manchurian Candidate mode.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 4, 2015

Jesse and Kristen 4-EVA.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2015

The movie makes you inch towards the exit, mumbling an apology.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 3, 2015

Deeply uninspired, abrasive and mildly offensive.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 3, 2015

A mashup of Bourne and Clerks, fusing the worst of each into a galumphing stoner action comedy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 3, 2015

The film is an idea in search of a tone.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 3, 2015

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.

| Aug 24, 2015

The movie evaporates in the mind, but Stewart and Eisenberg have real movie-star chemistry.

| Aug 21, 2015

The action-movie absurdity is still in place, but so is Landis' muddy-bloody touch: by the end, Eisenberg's face is a purple, swollen wreck, and rightly so.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 21, 2015

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.

| Aug 21, 2015

You never fully buy "American Ultra" - you're not supposed to - but it's a decent ride with some nice turns.

| Original Score: B | Aug 21, 2015

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.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 20, 2015

An amusing idea, but the ugly violence and weepy dramatics effectively kill any comedic buzz.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 20, 2015

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.

| Aug 20, 2015

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.

| Aug 20, 2015