50
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceAmy NicholsonVillage VoiceAmy NicholsonNima 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.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattCheck your brain at the popcorn-butter pump in the lobby and enjoy it.
- 60Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonPart 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.
- 58IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandThe 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.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyA 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.
- 50VarietyAndrew BarkerVarietyAndrew BarkerToo often plays like an earnest yet unsatisfying adaptation of a cult graphic novel, with most of the charm lost in translation.
- 40TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeNourizadeh 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.
- 40Time OutDavid EhrlichTime OutDavid EhrlichArtless and unpleasant, this is the kind of late-summer swill that gives August a bad name.
- 40The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanUnfortunately 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.
- 16The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezAmerican 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.