"American Ultra" Review
The psychedelic posters for American Ultra make the film’s purpose clear: it’s a bold, stoner comedy. The film’s tagline — “Everyone’s getting smoked” — further drives the point home. Unfortunately, like most potheads, American Ultra fails to deliver on its promise.
Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a stoner with an ambition problem. He wants something beyond the life he has created in the small West Virginian town he lives in. Unfortunately, he’s all too content working at the local convenient store, getting high while doing so, and coming home to his all too understanding girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Things begin to shift for Mike when a federal agent (played by Connie Britton) comes to visit him at the convenient store one night. Through a string of nonsensical words, the agent activates a deadly night of gun-slinging, bomb-blasting debauchery for Mike and Phoebe — just your normal stoner comedy, right?
Comedy is by far one of the hardest genres when it comes to telling a good story. When the main purpose of a film is to get a good laugh, major details like structure and plot can get lost in the name of going for the joke. For American Ultra, the comedy seems to have been prioritized and the all important question of “What is at stake?” is simply forgotten. Between the rushed introduction of the “romantic” leads and the disjointed CIA storyline, there is no space for the audience to get to know these characters or give us a reason to care about them. This set-up worked in the sense that the film is just bizarre enough to be funny, but the humor is one-note, rarely going beyond a well-written line or two. The surface level humor of American Ultra is further compounded by the sheer violence of the film. Guns were a plenty, as were other cringe-worthy kills brought about by dust pans and spoons. Yes, spoons.
A case could be made that this was simply a wrong person, wrong film situation, but as a big believer in comedy, this reviewer stands by the sour taste left in her mouth by American Ultra. There is also the chance that maybe, just like it’s main characters, American Ultra is best watched while stoned. Maybe then this peculiar film would make a little more sense.
Grade: D+
"Rio 2" is fun for kids
Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) are back with three additions to their family. Although time has moved forward, the gang is still in tact, the music rocks just as loud, and the colors are just as vibrant. Yet with all its’ shimmer, “Rio 2” is dulled by multiple themes and storylines that point in opposite directions.
The beauty of “Rio” was that it showed us an animated but authentic mock up of Rio de Janeiro and had a classic story outline that was easy to follow. Blu was thought to be the last male blue macaw bird in the world, and Jewel was the last female. After being domesticated for years in America by his owner Linda (Leslie Mann), Blu, who didn’t know how to fly, and Jewel met in an effort to keep the species alive. Yet after being kidnapped by smugglers, the two had to work together to get to freedom. Pretty succinct right? (More happened in the film of course, but it was simple.)
In “Rio 2” Linda and her husband Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) find more blue macaw’s living deep in the Amazon. This incites a family trip for Blu, Jewel, the kids, and their motley group of friends- cardinal Pedro (will.i.am), toucan Rafael (George Lopez), and yellow canary Nico (Jamie Foxx). While Blu and Jewel struggle with raising their children with Blu’s domestication and Jewel’s living naturally in the wild on their trip; their friends are searching for new talent for Carnival.
On their way to the Amazon they attract the attention of Nigel (Jemaine Clement), a cockatoo and Shakespearean actor, who seeks revenge from Blu giving him a devastating injury that left him unable to fly in “Rio”. Once the group arrives in the Amazon they reunite with Jewel’s thought-to-be-lost family who are hiding deep in the rain forest to escape human poachers and illegal loggers. Not only do the blue macaws have an environmental fight against humans, but they’re up against a large family of red macaw’s for forest space. The youthful leader of the blue macaw family, Roberto (Bruno Mars), engages in a friendly “girl that got away” grudge match with Blu as well. Do you see what I’m talking about? There are way to many subplots in this film that take away from what it did best in “Rio”, which is entertain while keeping the story moving forward at a good pace. The film feels like it was written in chapters for each situation with a thin through line.
At the end of the day who cares about subplots and disjointedness? Certainly not the crowd full of kids that I saw the film with. I guess that’s what director Carlos Saldanha counted on. “Rio 2” will definitely entertain the kids, and allow parents a moment to relax and laugh with their children. Unfortunately, as a film, it’s the embodiment of a great first animated feature with a lesser sequel.
Rating: C+