American Ultra
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 21, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
20
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonAug 18, 2015
Nima Nourizadeh’s American Ultra is a bloody valentine attached to a bomb. It’s violent, brash, inventive and horrific, and perhaps the most romantic film of the year. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 20, 2015
The screenplay is deceptively tight, even as the main characters seem to be buzzing aimlessly through the proceedings. Like the most successful films of the drug-hazed genre, this movie only appears to be going off the rails. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 19, 2015
American Ultra is one of those geeky genre mishmashes that’s very clever about being dumb. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 18, 2015
Check your brain at the popcorn-butter pump in the lobby and enjoy it. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghAug 20, 2015
That American Ultra works as well as it does is a testament to its two lead performances. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 20, 2015
This is not a spoiler alert; it’s a tip: If you go to see American Ultra, stay for the credits, right to the end. They are animated and provide a mini fourth act for the film, a little action movie starring a super simian and a beautiful (human) damsel; they are an amusing addendum, but mainly they tell you a lot about where American Ultra’s heart lies, deep in comic-book territory. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 20, 2015
A lot Bourne and a little bong, the action comedy...is too earnest to be a stoner movie and too quirky to be an action flick. Therein lies the beauty of director Nima Nourizadeh’s Ultra: It exists to entertain in its own oddball universe, munchies optional. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 19, 2015
It's fun in a bad way and bad in a fun way, and that’ll do for this late in the summer. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianAug 18, 2015
A Bourne movie turned just askew enough to be funny, American Ultra trains a bemused eye on a trope ripe for a ribbing. Read full review
60
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerAug 20, 2015
If you go, expect a diverting summer action adventure with occasional laughs, not a diverting stoner comedy with occasional action. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 18, 2015
While Nourizadeh's just-for-fun head trip is no more ambitious than its long-haired pothead of a main character, it delivers on its sole goal: to entertain and to surprise. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 18, 2015
Part stoner comedy, midnight movie, outsiders’ love story and ultraviolent B-movie, this intriguing film is given real soul by stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, even if director Nima Nourizadeh’s ambitions end up being more laudable than the results. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 18, 2015
The bone-crunching action and relentlessly blood-letting feels out of place, and as those sequences start appearing with more frequency, the film loses much of its rangy charm. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 7, 2015
American Ultra is undemanding late-summer studio fare — ultraforgettable. But I’ll remember the faces of Eisenberg and Stewart, who are easy to ridicule but, whatever the pundits say, very much movie stars. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 21, 2015
The movie is replete with bloody encounters, sly asides, and one-liners, but the tone is awkward and uneven. There are also some serious structural problems that we're supposed to brush aside. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 20, 2015
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. As it is, it’s content to generate a low-grade buzz, rather than deliver a true high. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartAug 20, 2015
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 full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 20, 2015
If the filmmakers had opted to play things closer to the vest, this could have been the clever "Pineapple Express"-meets-"The Bourne Identity" mashup it wants to be instead of the shallow, gratuitously violent exercise it actually is. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 19, 2015
Eisenberg and Stewart stay appealing to the last. The movie, not so much. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 19, 2015
American Ultra is a clumsy mix of courtship and gunpowder, passion and horror leading to a romantically sick-humored conclusion. The end nearly justifies director Nima Nourizadeh's means of getting there. But not quite. Read full review
50
VarietyAndrew BarkerAug 18, 2015
Too often plays like an earnest yet unsatisfying adaptation of a cult graphic novel, with most of the charm lost in translation. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 18, 2015
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 full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenAug 20, 2015
The action set-pieces and the comedic character scenes in the film seem to be taking turns and are rarely brought together in a meaningful way. Read full review
40
SlateSeth StevensonAug 20, 2015
A mere clever conceit isn’t enough, and here, the action smells stale and the humor staler. There’s no explosion we haven’t seen before, no quip that feels fresh and new. I suggest you save American Ultra to stream on a lazy snow day this winter — even then, the deep sleeper who needs to be awoken might be you. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 19, 2015
This stoners-meet-government-assassins mashup is as meandering and paranoid as a guy toking up in front of City Hall. Sometimes that’s amusing, but most of the time it’s tiring. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 19, 2015
By turns sweet, sadistic, and silly, American Ultra will probably make a stronger impression if you watch it while high. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanAug 18, 2015
Unfortunately both Eisenberg and Stewart, both frequently brilliant, are on unsure footing here. The movie simply doesn't know if it wants to be Jason Bourne or Cheech and Chong. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid EhrlichAug 18, 2015
Artless and unpleasant, this is the kind of late-summer swill that gives August a bad name. Read full review
40
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 18, 2015
Nourizadeh and Landis are clearly going for a Tarantino level of blood-soaked dark humor, and while their cast is game, the film’s bursts of violence grow tiresome as its plot gets more and more ludicrous and hard to swallow. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 20, 2015
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 full review
16
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezAug 18, 2015
American Ultra hopes to leave you both shellshocked and blissfully stoned, but as perfect storm of aggressively repulsive choices, it’s a queasy bad trip worth avoiding at all costs. Read full review
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