American Ultra (2015) Directed by Nima Nourizadeh. Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Connie Britton. IMDB says: “A stoner – who is in fact a government agent – is marked as a liability and targeted for extermination. But he’s too well-trained and too high for them to handle.”

Trailers for American Ultra do a nice job selling the film as a part stoner comedy, part Bourne film. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mike Howell, a true burnout that lives out his simple existence in a small town in West Virginia alongside his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Behind the scenes we learn that Mike is much more than just a convenience store clerk – he is actually a government experiment, a deadly assassin from a secret program that was shutdown. Long story short, once Mike is activated and his old training kicks in, he’s left confused and targeted as he struggles to understand what is happening.

American Ultra is a neat little film that is far more thoughtful than you might expect. Eisenberg and Stewart do a nice job selling their love for one another, which helps drive the movie’s emotional turns. The supporting cast has fun with script, especially Walton Goggins as a maniac turned hitman. But what interests me in particular is the movie’s script. It takes far more time fleshing out the idea behind this story than called for which stands as both a positive and a negative overall. I couldn’t tell if the movie needed just a little more punch (in the figurative sense) or if it was just throwing me through a loop. I really appreciated that it felt different and a little bit like a cult movie for this generation but I also wasn’t 100% sold sitting in the theater. What I was feeling might not sound like glowing praise but I still found the film enjoyable.

Now you’re going to have to walk with me for a minute on this next bit – I feel a bit compelled to mention my totally not at all enjoyable theater experience. One brief annoyance was that the film wasn’t positioned to fit the screen so there were more than a handful of shots (including any subtitles) that were cut off and oddly framed. But what really distracted me through the entire film was this bizarre laughing theater patron. It might have been two people? Or maybe the one person just had a voice that carried? Whatever the case there was this mind-numbing surround sound of inappropriate laughter that acted like a second, unauthorized soundtrack for most of the film. It seemed to spark concern and delight from the rest of the audience throughout the film and pulled me out mentally from a number of scenes. Maybe this complaint has no place in this review but I can’t help but think that it strongly colored my opinion.

Anyways, Ultra is more action than comedy and more serious than you might anticipate. It’s unique and I’m eager to watch it again mainly because I haven’t been able to easily make my mind up on it. I liked it but I feel like there is something really special about it, something I’m not quite digesting in the right way. Go into this one with an open mind and then come back here and tell me what you think.