American Ultra (2015)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a convenience store clerk living in a small town in Virginia with his girlfriend, Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart). Mike’s peaceful and ordinary life is upended, when he’s attacked by two unknown assailants. 

Mike is targeted and hunted by dangerous operatives, while he’s caught in the middle of a deadly feud between CIA agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) and her coworker and adversary Adrian Yates (Topher Grace). Phoebe and his drug dealer buddy Rose (John Leguizamo) are Mike’s only allies, but Mike soon learns shocking secrets about himself and the reasons behind the government’s relentless pursuit to eliminate him.

My Thoughts- Jesse Eisenberg plays to his strengths with his familiar quirky and socially awkward persona, and it’s something he always excels at. Mike is a peaceful and carefree pothead. But he’s also a klutz and he’s not too bright at times, so the irony of Mike quickly switching gears to be this lethal and efficient sleeper agent is just hilarious. 

The boyfriend/girlfriend chemistry between Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart is fantastic. Mike is a stoner. He’s clumsy, he continuously makes stupid mistakes, but Phoebe never gives up on him. She knows he’s a good person with a big heart, and she’s willing to risk her life to protect him. Stewart and Eisenberg were believable as an unusual couple. Phoebe plays the role of his protector, and it’s easy to buy into the fact that these two are willing to do anything to keep each other safe.

Topher Grace did a good job as a pompous and condescending weasel. Connie Britton’s Victoria is a perfect foil for Grace’s Yates. Victoria is a kind, hard working, and compassionate person. She wants to protect Mike, because she knows he’s innocent. On the opposite side, Yates is a selfish and cold jerk, who climbed the corporate ladder with brown nosing and butt kissing. He sees Mike as a disposable asset. It’s his chance to further advance his career, and the dynamic between Britton and Grace is one of the true highlights here.

The approach on how to use Bill Pullman’s Raymond Krueger throughout the movie really works. Krueger’s appearances are limited, so when he shows up it’s more of a big deal, and you’re not exactly sure what his precise title is. It’s clear he outranks Yates and Victoria, and Pullman brings a commanding presence to Krueger. You firmly know he’s the boss, and Krueger means business, whenever he shows up.

Walton Goggins delivers one of the top performances as Laugher. You can immediately see Laugher is someone who has a few screws loose. Laugher is a top pick for a lot of the good comedic moments, because he’s a pesky and persistent stinker, who keeps coming back to terrorize Mike and Phoebe. Goggins perfectly sells Laugher’s nutty and violent personality, with that crazed look on his face and the constant cackling. He’s Mike’s main adversary in hand to hand combat and Yates’ got to guy throughout the movie, and Goggins truly nailed this character.

As far as John Leguizamo goes, I could’ve done without the N word stuff with Rose. It’s not malicious at all, but Rose definitely leans more towards the cringey side at times. Leguizamo is solid enough as the paranoid and low level drug kingpin, so the N word stuff just felt unnecessary. 

Tony Hale deserves credit for a noteworthy performance as Pete Douglas. He’s a nice and genuinely good guy, who turns into a nervous mess, because he’s torn between helping his friend (Victoria) and Yates, who bullies him and threatens his life, if he doesn’t fall in line.

When Mike finds out who he truly is, and Yates is still holding Phoebe hostage, it’s easy to guess how things will play out. Phoebe was actually Mike’s handler, and she wasn’t completely honest with him, so you know he’ll go through the dilemma of wanting to trust her again, because he believes she betrayed him. It all leads to the big showdown at the end, where Mike has to take on the rest of Yates’ Toughguy team and rescue Phoebe. It’s a predictable series of events, but the wild finale still delivers some good action and fight sequences. 

They did a good job with the contrast between Yates’ Toughguy sleeper agents and Victoria’s Wiseman sleeper agents. Yates’ agents are cold and more ruthless. On the flip side of that, Mike came from the Wisemam program. He’s someone who’s compassionate. There’s humanity in him, and he’s noticeably different from Laugher, who’s a mindless killing machine following orders. The differences between the Wiseman and Toughguy programs is a reflection of Yates and Victoria’s personalities. It’s a hilarious and ironic twist, with Mike being a stoner and a slacker as the success story over Yates’ supposedly more efficient team with tighter screws. 

The final showdown between Mike and Laugher delivered a satisfying brawl. Mike and Laugher were the two star recruits from their respective programs, so it made perfect sense for both guys to be the last men standing. There’s a heartfelt moment, when Laugher admits defeat and admires Mike’s performance and progress. Laugher talks about being broken (Yates used mental patients for his program), and Mike refuses to kill him, because he finally sees Laugher as a human being, who fell into an unfortunate situation.

There’s more irony when Yates is killed by Krueger for his massive blunder. Early on in the movie, Yates threatened Pete with death by execution outside, and that’s exactly how Yates was killed. The only difference is Yates wasn’t shot in “the f****** head,” but he still got what he deserved.

American Ultra has a happy ending. Victoria clearly receives a promotion with Pete by her side. Phoebe and Mike are working together as agents, and they can finally embrace their relationship. Also, it’s cool and unique how they ended the final moments of the movie with Mike’s The Adventures Of Apollo Ape & Chip The Brick cartoon. The success of Mike and Phoebe working together is shown through the cartoon, and it’s truly a fitting ending for this one.

American Ultra is a sharp and fun action comedy with a solid cast. The laughs and humor are consistent, and Mike trying to propose to Phoebe is a big running gag here. Mike is always trying to find the right moment to pop the question throughout the movie, but something always goes wrong. Mike finally gets his chance and Phoebe accepts after the big fight at the end, but the happy moment gets cut short, when Mike and Phoebe are tased by the agents. American Ultra has a strong pulse. There’s never truly a dull moment here, and after so many years, it’s still one of Jesse Eisenberg’s best films.

Rating- 8/10

Mitch’s Movie Ratings

Putting all my ratings for movies in one post is something I’ve thought about for a while, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. This post will contain all of my ratings for movies I’ve watched, reviewed, or possibly plan on reviewing in the future. As far as the older reviews on here go, I haven’t decided yet, but I might update those ratings with rewatches or new reviews, because sometimes opinions change over time, right? 

I’m going to separate everything by year, franchises, and film series to avoid things getting too messy and unorganized. The same goes for sequels, trilogies, or films that are connected to a shared universe. I’ll try to update this post as frequently as possible, so with all that said, here we go!

Escape Room

Escape Room (2019)- 7/10

Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions- 7/10

Godzilla 

Godzilla Minus One- 10/10

Godzilla (1998)- 3/10

Godzilla (2014)- 5/10

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters (2019)- 8/10

Godzilla vs. Kong- 6/10

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire- 5/10

King Kong

Kong: Skull Island- 6/10

MonsterVerse

Godzilla (2014)- 5/10

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters (2019)- 8/10

Godzilla vs. Kong- 6/10

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire- 5/10

Kong: Skull Island- 6/10

My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine (1981)- 8/10

My Bloody Valentine (2009)- 6/10

2024

Abigail- 8/10

The Beekeeper- 7/10

I.S.S.- 5/10

Love Lies Bleeding- 8/10

Night Swim- 4/10

2023

The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster- 8/10

Five Nights At Freddy’s- 6/10

The Iron Claw- 9/10

2022

Babylon- 8/10

The Baker-7/10

The Invitation- 6/10

2021

Dashcam- 5/10

Night Teeth- 6/10

2019

Countdown- 5/10

2018

Bad Times At The El Royale- 8/10

Billionaire Boys Club- 5/10

2016

The Belko Experiment- 8/10

Nerve- 6/10

2015

American Ultra- 8/10

Project Almanac- 5/10

2010

Shutter Island- 8/10

Takers- 5/10

2008

Jumper- 5/10

Lake Mungo- 8/10

2001

Valentine (2001)- 6/10

1990

GoodFellas- 10/10

Lake Mungo (2008)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- In 2005, a teenager named Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker) drowns during a swim in a quiet town named Ararat. Alice’s mother, June (Rosie Traynor), her father, Russell (David Pledger), and her, brother Matthew (Martin Sharpe) struggle to move on after her death. 

The Palmers want to live a normal life, but after too many strange events, the family is left with troubling questions about the events leading up to Alice’s death. June turns to a psychic named Ray Kemeny (Steve Jodrell) for help, and the Palmer’s investigation to find the truth leads to a series of shocking revelations.

My Thoughts- Lake Mungo’s documentary style approach to found-footage feels genuinely authentic. You get the feeling you’re actually watching a documentary, with the way everything is presented and setup. The interviews with Alice’s family, friends, and neighbors, and they actually blurred out children’s faces to protect the identity of minors. There’s also the tidbits of information in between each section to explain what’s going on with the story. You really get the feeling an actual team worked hard to put this documentary together. 

I also loved the grainy VHS picture quality with the news reports about Alice’s death. The “footage” in Lake Mungo never looks too clean or polished, and it definitely adds a good sense of realism here. The same thing can be said about Alice’s cell phone footage from her trip to Lake Mungo. At times it’s hard to make out what’s going on, because the picture quality is so poor, but that’s exactly what they were going for. You’re not supposed to be waiting for a big jump scare or an attack. No, you’re watching real footage of a teenage girl panicking. She has to run and escape, so you’re not going to see everything clearly.

The performances? Well, if you’re looking different types of charisma, unique personalities, or showmanship, you won’t find it here. June is a broken and grieving mother, Russell is doing his best to hold it together and be the leader and man of the household, and Matthew is the dejected brother who misses his sister. Ray? He just comes off as a normal guy, who looks like he works a nine to five. I’m actually glad they took this approach with Ray. When they introduced him his a psychic, I thought they would make him out to be an eccentric philosopher type, someone who always speaks in riddles about life and death, but that would’ve been too hokey.

As Alice’s story unfolds, it’s revealed she was keeping a lot of heavy secrets from her family. Alice was involved in a sexual relationship with a neighbor named Brett (Scott Terrill) and his wife, Marissa (Tamara Donnellan), and she actually knew and met with Ray long before Ray met with June, a secret Ray kept from the family. The video footage of the sessions with Ray and Alice really shows you just how much Alice was struggling mentally. She expressed her fears about visions she was having, how she felt about death, and an overwhelming sense of dread she couldn’t get past. Alice basically predicted her own death through her visions and nightmares, and there’s a gut punch, when Alice talks about how her mother wasn’t able to save her in the visions she had.

So what’s going to happen at Lake Mungo? Surely, it’s going to be something BIG, right? With some help from Alice’s boyfriend, it’s revealed Alice buried something near a tree at Lake Mungo, and to make things more bizarre, Alice came face to face with her deformed doppelgänger at Lake Mungo. The doppelgänger resembled Alice’s corpse after she drowned, so something chaotic has to happen? Throughout the movie, there’s footage of an emotionless Alice appearing throughout the Palmer’s house, leading you to believe maybe Alice is not dead, or her ghost is possibly haunting the family. But it’s revealed Matthew faked and set up Alice’s appearances throughout the house.

The Palmer’s found Alice’s phone buried at Lake Mungo, containing the footage of the doppelgänger encounter. The Palmer’s went to Lake Mungo looking for answers and evidence, but they eventually found closure together instead. The doppelgänger wasn’t some vengeful demon or ghost, the family wasn’t chased in the darkness, and there weren’t any scenes with the Palmers hiding from a threat, while they did best to stay quiet and not make any noise. After seeing the footage from Alice’s trip to Lake Mungo, I was expecting this exact scenario, but they stayed true to the documentary presentation, without going into the usual found-footage horror hysteria for a big finale.

Alice’s story is filled with heartache. June found the sex tape with the Brett and Marissa and Alice’s diary in her safe. Just think about how that played out for a second. Alice could’ve easily destroyed that tape to keep it secret, but she wanted her family to find it. And it’s obvious she wanted to keep the video proof of the doppelgänger encounter, so no one would think she was crazy or imagining things out of paranoia.

An inappropriate sexual relationship with adults, a doppelgänger, and visions of your own death? Those are heavy burdens for a kid to carry, and you can see just how badly everything affected Alice in her sessions with Ray. Alice had justifiable reasons for not being able to shake the inescapable dread of dying. She had too much going on in the crucial developmental years of her life, and it’s easy to guess Alice was probably apprehensive about telling her parents about the Brett and Melissa situation out of fear for how they would’ve reacted.

Lake Mungo ends with an eerie shot of Alice’s ghost standing by the window, and watching her family, as the Palmers take one last picture before they move out. It’s the same shot from the opening of the movie. Only difference is, they didn’t show Alice standing there at the window at the beginning. So there’s a chance Alice was haunting the house, or her ghost was just watching over the family? Is her spirit trapped there forever? We don’t get definitive answers to these questions, but it’s a genuinely creepy ending. A lot of possibilities for Alice’s ghost that could go so many ways, and it makes you wonder if the Palmer family is actually in a position, where they can truly move on.

If I have to complain about one big thing, it’s Lake Mungo constantly relying on the footage or the pics of Alice’s ghost standing around throughout the house. After Matthew’s hoax is exposed, it’s revealed that new footage of Alice’s ghost is actually real during the tail end of the movie. It just gets so redundant and tiresome after you’ve seen it so many times. I get the whole point of what they were going for. It’s supposed to be spooky and shocking to see Alice in the house, because we’re not sure what her intentions are for hanging around. But you can only get so much out of the same or similar images of Alice standing around with this emotionless and blank expression on her face.

With all that said, Lake Mungo is still a strong mockumentary horror film. The found-footage elements perfectly fit within the story, and director Joel Anderson does a good job of taking a serious approach to this one. News reports, family photos, and home movies are all used to add to Lake Mungo’s strong sense of realism. There’s also that one gruesome image of Alice’s corpse after she drowned. It’s the only image of brutality in the movie, but it’s definitely strong enough to remember.

If you can really suspend disbelief for Lake Mungo, and put yourself in the mindset that you’re watching an actual documentary, it’s easy to appreciate the fine details. In the end, Lake Mungo effectively accomplishes its mission, with a no nonsense style of storytelling, for a somber and tragic series of events involving an innocent teenage girl. 

Rating- 8/10

Dashcam (2021)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a popular live streamer named Annie (Annie Hardy) visits London to reconnect with her friend and old band mate Stretch (Amar Chadha-Patel). Stretch’s girlfriend, Gemma (Jemma Moore) quickly grows tired of Annie’s abrasive personality, so Annie steals Stretch’s car to go off on her own.

Annie hijacks Stretch’s job as a food delivery driver to pick up an order at a restaurant, and the owner of the restaurant offers to pay Annie for an odd side job. She wants Annie to drive her elderly friend Angela (Angela Enahoro) to a location, and she’s willing to pay more for Annie to do the job. Annie agrees, but Annie quickly finds out that she unknowingly stumbled into a dangerous task.

My Thoughts- Well, one thing’s for sure, you’ll either be annoyed by Annie or you’ll just flat out hate her. She’s definitely a polarizing main character. Early on in the movie, you can clearly see Annie is a defiant and stubborn conservative. She’s a proud Donald Trump fan, and Dashcam is set during the social distancing and strict mask mandates period of the pandemic. So as soon as Annie encounters a situation where face masks are required, you just knew she was going to unload on the cafe owner about tyranny and human rights. Just think about any of the viral videos you might’ve seen three or four years ago, when someone didn’t want to wear a mask and said person went on a tirade. It’s the usual material about defying mask mandates, and you’ll quickly get a good idea about the foundation of Annie’s character.

The direction of Annie’s character is a strange one. Hardy lays it on so thick as Annie it’s to the point, where she’s basically a parody of a hardcore conservative and Trump supporter. Annie is loud, rude, vulgar, confrontational, and of course she has a Make America Great Again hat. Were they trying to mock Trump supporters? I lean in that direction, because Hardy is so over the top with her rants, and the way she constantly belittles and mocks Gemma about her Covid protocols and liberal beliefs is just too on the nose. And to top things off, a Donald Trump bobble head doll makes an appearance at the end. 

If you take away all the conservative and Trump flag waving stuff from Annie’s character, there’s still no denying she’s just not a nice person. Annie is someone who truly has no off switch. She’s kind of selfish, she steals Stretch’s car, and she inadvertently drags him into a life threatening situation.

Dashcam is shown through a live stream POV. It’s an attempted spin on the found-footage sub genre of horror, and it works most of the time. They stayed true to the live stream POV, with emojis popping up on the screen and Annie’s followers monitoring the chaos and posting comments. Annie hosts a stream named BandCar, where her followers comment one word and she finds a way to fit each word into a freestyle. The humor and the punchlines during the freestyles are hit and miss, and of course the shaky cam stuff gets tiresome after a while. Still, at least they stayed true to the POV for the realistic feel, and you do get the impression that you’re actually watching an unprecedented and chaotic live stream.

So there’s obviously something wrong with Angela. She’s got supernatural abilities, and Angela’s mother reveals another shocking secret about her. Angela’s actually a teenager, and well, that would explain why an elderly woman has an Ariana Grande tattoo. 

We never get a full and clear cut explanation behind Angela’s powers and her rapid aging, but there are some clues to sort of put the pieces of the puzzle in place. Angela is obviously an important part of some weird and creepy satanic cult. And it’s clear her body was used a vessel to birth a grotesque creature. Depending on how it’s done, I do prefer the mysterious approach to certain reveals. Angela’s story makes you think about how all these horrible things could’ve happened to her. In the one photo Angela’s mother shows Annie and Stretch, Angela clearly looks happy as a kid. Who could’ve done this to her? Why was she chosen for this horrible ritual?

Dashcam dishes out its fair share of blood and over the top gore. There’s the grisly and graphic scene, where Annie uses a steering wheel to break the mother’s arm, and Angela ripping off her mom’s head, ending with a fountain of blood shooting out of her neck. Stretch’s death scene, where Angela rips his throat out was truly nasty, and it’s a bummer for Stretch. He was a good and honest hard working guy, who stumbled into a bad situation.

Dashcam kicks into high gear during the home stretch to deliver a satisfying final act. The finale is tense and a real nail biter, as Annie fights off and kills the creature that grew out of Angela. Everything leading up to the final fight feels genuinely suspenseful, with Annie realizing she’s at the address where she was supposed to drop Angela off, to seeing the cult members commit a mass suicide together.

With all that said, the comedy in Dashcam is a bit too much at times. It undercuts some of the more serious moments, and I got the feeling I was watching a horror comedy and not a full on horror film. I loved the sequence in the dark forest, when Annie and Stretch were trying to escape and hide from Angela and her mother. Still, a lot of the jump scares are predictable, and you’ll still see some of the found footage cliches here. The shaky cam stuff is annoying, and it’s way too easy to see the jump scares coming, with the usual back and forth movements of the camera. You just know something or someone is going to pop up in the background when it happens.

Annie is a character with no real middle ground, and it’s kind of hard to root for her. She dragged Stretch into this mess, and he was killed by Angela. And I can’t forget about the two newlyweds who died in that firey car crash, when Annie and Stretch were trying to escape.

I’m still not sure why they felt the need to do the hardcore conservative and Trump supporter stuff with Annie’s character. It’s not like they were trying to make her a truly evil person. But Annie’s CONSTANT rants against liberals just keep going and going throughout the movie. It reaches a point where you’ll say, okay we get it? I just got the feeling they wanted to take a strange approach to make Annie as annoying as they possibly could to piss off the audience. But why would you do that to the protagonist/final girl? Yeah, Annie survived and went through absolute hell to do so, but in the end, Annie only has herself to blame for her selfish and unbelievably bad decisions.

Rating-5/10