Get ready for the sleeper (agent) hit of the summer –Â American Ultra‘s latest trailer is more of the same, but given that it’s marketing a movie that looks as unrepentantly fun as this one, that’s fine by me.
Jesse Eisenberg, taking on a vastly different role than his (brilliantly acted) one in this week’s The End of the Tour, plays a gas-station-cashier stoner whose carefree existence with his loving girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) is rudely interrupted when he learns that he is a government-programmed secret weapon with a very unique set of skills that make him extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. And so, when government cronies descend on the pair of them to take him out of the picture, they get a little more than they bargained for.
We’ve seen versions of this story before, and it all seems reminiscent of the terrific NBC series Chuck, but the addition of Pineapple Express-esque shenanigans should keep things unpredictable. Besides, the terrific supporting cast includes John Leguizamo, Connie Britton, Topher Grace, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale and Walton Goggins, so audiences can expect a good time regardless of whether the plot ends up holding together.
Here’s the official synopsis:
American Ultra is a fast-paced action comedy about Mike [Eisenberg], a seemingly hapless and unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe [Stewart], is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal sleeper agent. In the blink of an eye, as his secret past comes back to haunt him, Mike is thrust into the middle of a deadly government operation and is forced to summon his inner action-hero in order to survive.
Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) directed from a script by Max Landis (Chronicle). American Ultra hits theaters August 21.
