American Ultra

What do you get when you mix a stoner comedy with an espionage thriller and a road-trip romance? That question is posed with mixed results by American Ultra, an extremely violent mash-up that lacks the courage to follow through on its convictions.

This half-baked hybrid of slackers and sci-fi is uneven by nature but also ambitious, and defiantly subversive in the way it throws everything at the screen to see what sticks. It feels like it’s adapted from a comic book, except it’s not.

It takes place in a nondescript West Virginia town, where Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) spends his nights working at a fledgling convenience store and doodling on his graphic novel, while his girlfriend (Kristen Stewart) shares his affinity for pot and parties.

Then comes a major gear-shift when a CIA agent (Connie Britton) pays a visit to the store, trying to determine whether Mike knows he’s actually a spy with superior fighting capabilities who is part of a secret government program of trained assassins. Once he unlocks these hidden capabilities, Mike becomes a targeted by henchmen for a power-hungry agent (Topher Grace) who wants to end the program that produced Mike, in part for personal gain.

As directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Project X), the film is a hyperactive head trip at times, which might be appropriate given all the controlled substances on display. He certainly shows flashes of visual imagination.

After a promising set-up, the screenplay by Max Landis (Chronicle) becomes more of a conventional cat-and-mouse action movie in the second half. It tries to compensate for its narrative flaws with style and attitude, which works for a while before the whole enterprise runs out of steam.

Eisenberg’s role allows him to demonstrate his versatility, blending awkward toughness with offbeat charm as Mike turns into an unlikely superhero of sorts. He’s like Jason Bourne with a bong, Eisenberg achieves a convincing chemistry with Stewart, who also played his love interest in Adventureland.

Meanwhile, American Ultra enjoys reveling in its excess, for better and worse. Yet the exhausting result works better in segments than as a whole, and can be appreciated more for its effort than its execution.

Rated R, 96 minutes.