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
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
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