American Ultra

First Hit:  The abilities of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart made this film work.

When we are introduced to Mike (Eisenberg) he sits bloodied and being questioned by a law enforcement officer.

Then we quickly reel back to where his voice over tells the audience that he is a major screw-up. He gets high all the time, he’s afraid to leave his town. He works at a “Cash and Carry” convenience store in a small, sleepy, and uneventful town. He lives with his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart) who seems to really care about him and doesn’t seem to mind Mike’s inabilities to function at a very high level.

What we end up learning that Mike and Phoebe are both CIA agents, with Mike being a secret weapon. He’s in hibernation, but when he becomes activated he’s a killing machine. Supervising CIA Agent Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) decides he want to eliminate Mike and begins a plan kill him with his own brand of psychologically modified agents. Protecting Mike and Phoebe is Agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) who activates Mike so that he can protect himself. Some of the funniest scenes are short scenes with Mike’s friend Rose (John Leguizamo).

Eisenberg is perfect for this role, introverted, intense, physically adept and fully in-charge of his character. Stewart is wonderful as the agent who falls in love with the person she was assigned to protect. Their chemistry and interaction is wonderful. Grace is very good as the guy trying to make a name for himself. Britton is good as the protecting agent. Leguizamo is fantastic as Mike odd-ball, drug dealing friend. Max Landis wrote a strong, interesting and funny script. Nima Nourizadeh did a wonderful job of making the script come alive with action and dark comedy.

Overall:  I enjoyed the ways kitchen items can be used to create harm.

Project X

First Hit:  There wasn’t any acting because none was required.

This film is quite simply about a party that got away from itself.

The likelihood that high school kid could have a party like this in the neighborhood and house he was living in without the cops stopping it before it got the size it did is highly unlikely. The point, or so it seems in this film, is that a nerdy kid can make a lasting name for himself if he has a party of epic proportions.

Besides all this, the film was shot so that the audience was viewing it from an attendees camera point of view. This is the most interesting thing about this film.

The three main subjects Thomas (played by Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and JB (played by Jonathan Daniel Brown) hired Dax (played by Dax Flame) to film the entire event. This was the inventive part of the film because it was as if none of the actors were acting, they just had a party and filmed it.

The love interest in the film was between Thomas and Kirby (played by Kirby Bliss Blanton) which, of course had its ups, downs and up.

Mann was good as the kid who wanted to be more “in” but had some, but not acted upon, consciousness about how to go about it. Cooper was the real driver of the party to fulfill his own whims and wishes. As this character he did a very good job. Was he likable? Not really. Brown was fine as the overweight kid who was always the third wheel and who comes out of his shell a bit during the party. Flame was on camera, I think, three times and was perfect as the cameraman. He had the right look and answers to questions. Blanton was beautifully engaging and good as the girl who was willing to take a friendship with Thomas a little farther. Matt Drake and Michael Bacall wrote the script and I’m not sure of the inspiration except maybe through other films like Animal House and The Hangover movies. Nima Nourizadeh directed this and I’m sure in some ways it must have been both easy and difficult.

Overall: Not an inspiring or interesting film and outside of high school boys, I’m hard pressed to know who the audience is.