Review: "American Ultra" spoofs slackers and spy capers

"American Ultra" R
This year there have been several parody spoofs of secret agent films, and last year had one or two also. American Ultra though it a weird hybrid with Kirsten Stewart and Jessie Eisenberg as two luckless small town stoners who accidentally activate the sleeper agent of doom.

The story seems like something Kevin Smith would do, a stoner comedy, but also a sarcastic spy caper, but it's not Smith.

The title seems like the brand of cigarettes from the 1980s although the smoke in this is either pot or fireworks. The slacker dude starts off trying to get his girlfriend and engagement trip to Hwaii, but he has a panic attack and doesn't go. Later on when he is working as a clerk in a store, a strange blonde woman comes in, playing a Bond agent or something, and activates him.

He is this store clerk ala Clerks, some toughs come to his store and try to mess with his car, he kills them and then panics and calls his girlfriend to come rescue him.  The police then lock him in their jail, but more agents arrive to dispatch the police, and then the secret angets storm into town to stop their rogue asset, the dude.

A little of Pineapple Express is tossed in here, but unlike in that movie, the uneven drama that makes up their second half is present through this whole one, and the tone never turns completely comedic. It stays ironic and brooding.

The girlfriend may not be what she seems, but Stewart is really not up to the acting challenge of playing a convincing plant from another agency, so it is hard to tell what say another actress would have done in the role.

Eisenberg has been playing manic characters for years, so it's natural for him to play another. He seems more used to playing that then playing a super butt kicking action hero.

The story seems to be a spoof on the spy thriller, the X files, and a little of the film Slackers, and any number of Smith's work.

It's not a bad movie and is worth a rental.
Review by Adam Browne

"Vacation" films have been crossing a road for years

The latest version of "Vacation" quite literally breaks the fourth wall. The new lead, a guy who looks only a little like Chevy Chase from the original, plays Rusty, and is one of a handful of other Rusty's that have played the part. Now he is the Dad, with a smoking hot wife, and his two dippy sons. They decide to go on a road trip to Wally World as the Dad had done as a child 30 years earlier.

I am too bored of this concept to address who the actors really are, and yet, Applegate and Helmsworth are in it, but don't get too much to do.

The original classic John Hughes and Harold Ramis one is so surreal and awesome that they've tried to recapture the magic over and over. In 1983 it was one of many road trip movies, but it made fun of them, mocking the American family story and the summer movie. I was at the time too young to see a R rated film, so it was even more amusing seeing it because I wasn't supposed to be in the theater. (I was about 12). Also John Hughes was the man back then, making all sorts of movies.

Then Hughes and Heckerling decided to talked European vacations in European Vacation, where the Griswalds go to Paris and are out of place. It's a fish out of water but in another country.  It had moments of funny, including a Parisian dining scene and a clothing accident, and also a billboard accident.

The 1989 sequel, Christmas Vacation, did for the Holidays what the other did for the summer road trip. Suppose the family was snowed in for Christmas! Yes, and it was great too, although at times not as much fun as the previous one. It was one of the better holiday movies of the period.

Then the Grizwalds were off to Las Vegas in Vegas Vacation, 1997, the least inspired sequel. It actually made vacation in Vegas seem boring. The family getting new cars at the end defeats the purpose of them being losers.

The later one with the red necks having Christmas doesn't count.

Then at last came the recent remake sequel, Vacation 2015, which was like a live action Married with Children. This makes sense if you see it. The critics though were harsh to it. Although it has the staple gross out jokes and suggestive humor, it's not awful, and it's fun to see the cameos.  Some of the little jokes are surprising. Sure ther mean stuff falls flat, but there is enough in it going on for later rental or streaming.