American Ultra (15)

Director: Nima Nourizadeh

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Connie Britton, Topher Grace

BEING a deep cover special agent is probably one of the top fantasies of geeks everywhere.

Imagining yourself as an elite spy seems far more feasible than say a superhero or a rogue space captain.

But with all that intense training, protocols, covert missions and subterfuge, a licence to kill requires a lot of hard work.

A far cry from James Bond or Jack Bauer, American Ultra helps strike the balance by imagining what it would be like if an everyday slacker was a sleeper agent.

Nima Nourizadeh's film follows in the same vein as TV series Chuck in which a computer nerd inadvertently downloads government secrets into his brain – but with the stylised action of a graphic novel.

The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg, who will portray Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman, plays stoner and cash and carry worker Mike.

All he wants to do is propose to his girlfriend Phoebe (Kirsten Stewart), get over his fear of flying and draw sketches of his comic creation Apollo Ape.

But little does he know that he was trained by the CIA to be a killing machine as part of a failed super soldier project...and now the agency has decided to 'clean house'.

Forget silenced pistols and discreet kills, American Ultra is all about gung ho action which even involves the destruction of a police station at one point.

The plot makes very little sense but in a very self aware kind of way and the film gets away with this a large extent by labelling itself as a comedy.

It is all about setting up one slick action sequence after another in the style of Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass.

Expect to see the likes of frying pans used to ricochet bullets and shoot outs in an ultra violet room.

American Ultra's genre mash-up of super spy action and everyday life might also remind you of Mr and Mrs Smith while an imaginative superstore scene is even reminiscent of the tongue-in-cheek antics of Simon Pegg's Hot Fuzz.

It is over-the-top and gratuitous but never dull.

Nourizadeh's film also sees Eisenberg and Stewart reuniting after 2009's underrated Adventureland.

As always, Eisenberg is an extremely likeable leading man and Stewart is finally breaking free from her long association with Twilight.

7/10