cult film freak: jesse eisenberg

Written by James M. Tate / 8/20/2015 / No comments / 2015 , action , jesse eisenberg , kristen stewart , spy , stoner

THURSDAY REVIEW OF AMERICAN ULTRA

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2015 rating: *</td></tr>
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Combine marijuana with a reluctant action hero who has a super cool, understanding girlfriend and you get one very realistic scene where Jesse Eisenberg's small town convenience store clerk Mike Howell actually sounds like someone under the influence i.e. stoned silly. No he's not eating or drunkenly laughing like most pot-driven vehicles. But as he contemplates the meaning of a tree and a car in a pretentiously deep fashion, it's right on the mark...<br />
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Alas, nothing else works in AMERICAN ULTRA, a motion picture with a budget resembling a straight-to-video flick striving for greatness... And with such a plot-shifting twist (on top of a twist that's already established), it might be difficult to explain what does and doesn't work herein. Other than our two young leads, also including Kristen Stewart, having zero chemistry with each other, the CIA adults are so cliche and uninteresting, nothing matters when both worlds connect and collide and thus, the potential buzz is killed altogether... and then some.

2015, action, jesse eisenberg, kristen stewart, spy, stoner

THURSDAY REVIEW OF AMERICAN ULTRA

2015 rating: * Combine marijuana with a reluctant action hero who has a super cool, understanding girlfriend and you get one very realis...

Written by James M. Tate / 6/11/2013 / 2 Comments / 2013 , jesse eisenberg , mark ruffalo , michael caine , morgan freeman , thriller , woody harrelson

NOW YOU SEE ME

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>year: </b>2013 cast: Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Michael Caine <b>rating:</b> ***</td></tr>
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Perhaps NOW YOU DON’T, the second half of the famous line NOW YOU SEE ME, would be a more fitting title… After we get to know “The Four Horseman,” a group of magician/con artists using their showcase to steal from the rich and give to the poor (think David Copperfield meets Robin Hood), we don’t see them very much or get to know them all too well.  <br />
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That’s not entirely bad since Mark Ruffalo’s put-upon FBI agent Dylan Rhodes… constantly on the trail of the roving charlatans, each a solo act until they were hired by a mysterious backer to pull off three big heist/shows as a team… is a worthy main character: Through his befuddled eyes we venture from one level onto the next.<br />
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The Horseman include Jesse Eisenberg as a snarky card shark; Isla Fisher as a risk taking performance artist; Dave Franco as the group’s physically-charged street fighting freshman trying to prove his worth; and scene stealer Woody Harrelson as a charming comic relief mentalist creeping into everyone’s minds. Woody’s Merritt McKinney is, by far, the coolest cog in the wheel. But once each score is done we’re left with duped agent Rhodes lost in a perpetual cat and mouse maze.<br />
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Along with an exposition-spouting Morgan Freeman, whose act is to debunk all magicians, you’ll be guessing through each step: although the actual stage shows are downright preposterous unless you put this movie in the Science Fiction category. And to bring the cerebral mind games down to earth there’s a prolonged fistfight and car chase leading to a giant twist ending too complicated for its own good, over-explaining the ultimate ruse and making everything (and everyone) seem simplistically sleight of hand in comparison.

2013, jesse eisenberg, mark ruffalo, michael caine, morgan freeman, thriller, woody harrelson

NOW YOU SEE ME

year: 2013 cast: Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Michael Caine rating: *** Perhaps NOW YOU DON’T, the sec...

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