Nima Nourizadeh
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Ever since 1983's "Risky Business," (or even arguably 1978's college set "Animal House") the high school party run amok and variations on that theme have been a staple, rejuvenated for the current generation by Judd Apatow with 2007's "Superbad."
A funny combination of “Risky Business” and “Superbad,” “Project X” is a fond look at high school parties and the people that attend them.
The setup for Project X is remarkably like that of Risky Business, except the stakes in that film seemed smaller but more convincing.
The film's guiding spirit, however, is Todd Phillips, who maintains his singular genius for updating the clichés of the Animal House/Risky Business era so that they look just dangerous enough to make nostalgia feel naughty.
Their script plays like what you’d get if you put Animal House, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, House Party, Risky Business and Superbad in a blender.
We've seen this premise everywhere from "Risky Business" to "Superbad," but what makes "Project X" stand out is that it goes big by super-sizing the chaos with plenty of low-brow laughs along the way.
It is just one of many sly cinematic homages that range from "True Romance" to TV series "Chuck" in a film that is unsuspectingly sweet in the face of blood being copiously strewn across the screen and protagonists Mike and Phoebe getting progressively banged-up as their night from hell comes to a head.
One that echoes the lovey-dovey anti-hero sentiments of True Romance while wholly embracing the frivolous and preposterous action of True Lies.
It uses quirky, punk rock energy to tell a lovers-on-the-run story that aims to hit the sweet spot Tony Scott's True Romance nailed so eloquently back in 1993.
With its affecting central romance enduring unimaginable violence from outside sources, "American Ultra" has a little drop of "True Romance" in its DNA.
It's kind of a cross between Jason Bourne and Jay and Silent Bob, with more than a little "True Romance" thrown in for good measure.
American Ultra isn't True Romance by a long shot (or one point-blank in the face, for that matter).
Max Landis’ script is reminiscent of the one his father, John Landis, did for “Into the Night” in 1985.
At its best, Max Landis’s script channels some of the anarchic energy of Into the Night (which his father, John, directed), but too often American Ultra looks like 17 different movies thrown into a body bag and left to duke it out.
Animal House (1978)
Directed by John Landis
influenced Project X (2012), American Ultra (2015)
Themes
Ever since 1983's "Risky Business," (or even arguably 1978's college set "Animal House") the high school party run amok and variations on that theme have been a staple, rejuvenated for the current generation by Judd Apatow with 2007's "Superbad."
Shot to resemble cellphone pics posted on Facebook by totally wasted teenagers, "Project X" is "Animal House" for the YouTube generation - that is, if "Animal House" actually was about torturing animals while innocent bystanders got tased, all without ever being, you know, funny.
The film's guiding spirit, however, is Todd Phillips, who maintains his singular genius for updating the clichés of the Animal House/Risky Business era so that they look just dangerous enough to make nostalgia feel naughty.
It’s determined to make you forget “Animal House,’’ “House Party,’’ and “Can’t Hardly Wait.’’
Otherwise, Project X is short on fresh characterization, and it didnt have to be that way; Dionysian bashes from Animal House to American Pie found some quirks in their kids.
The “Animal House” of the iPhone generation?
The story of a stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) who discovers he’s a deprogrammed CIA operative and ends up fighting for his life after the agency descends on his small town, it’s a loud, ugly, slapdash combination of action movie, pot comedy, criminal romance, and conspiracy thriller — a mash-up of The Bourne Identity, The Big Lebowski, and Natural Born Killers, and about as lumpy and ungainly as you’d imagine such a stew would be.
It aspires to Natural Born Killers, but has barely enough competence to get close to something like Feeling Minnesota.
The couple’s love story, tested so severely by seemingly undefeatable forces, serves as binding thread for “American Ultra,” possibly the bloodiest love story since “Natural Born Killers.”
It’s a weird, wacked-out, sometimes wonderful mash-up of stoner comedy, spy-conspiracy spoof and hyper-violent teen-romance fantasy—think of Eisenberg and Stewart’s characters several years down the road from their 2009 collaboration Adventureland , caught between The Bourne Conspiracy and Pineapple Express , and spattered with Oliver Stone’s bloody overspray from Natural Born Killers .
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
influenced American Ultra (2015)
Plot Themes
From “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” to “The Manchurian Candidate” to the Jason Bourne franchise and now Nima Nourizadeh’s deliriously derivative and irresistible “American Ultra,” these unwary secret agents are drawn from their sleeper cells and discover a talent for killing with impunity.
It dates back (at least) as far as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and you may also remember it from popular action flicks like The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and The Bourne Identity (2002).
Because let's be honest: We're not covering any new ground here; sleeper agents have appeared in movies since The Manchurian Candidate, and stoners have a rich cinematic tradition dating back to Reefer Madness (fine, Easy Rider).
The film is written by Max Landis, son of horror-comedy alchemist John Landis, and it playfully stuffs in references to The Terminator, Blade Runner, The Manchurian Candidate, the Bourne movies and other favorites.
Since the blockbuster success of The Bourne Identity and its sequels (plus The Manchurian Candidate a generation earlier), the concept of a brainwashed agent/assassin has become the hoariest of action tropes.
Superbad (2007)
Directed by Greg Mottola
influenced Project X (2012), American Ultra (2015)
Themes Plot
Ever since 1983's "Risky Business," (or even arguably 1978's college set "Animal House") the high school party run amok and variations on that theme have been a staple, rejuvenated for the current generation by Judd Apatow with 2007's "Superbad."
It specifically evokes 2007â??s seminal Superbad and 2010â??s underseen The Virginity Hit, each of which more hilariously encapsulated the awkward pursuit of cherry-popping good times, with the latter even employing the same handheld conceit as this film.
A funny combination of “Risky Business” and “Superbad,” “Project X” is a fond look at high school parties and the people that attend them.
In the vein of films like Superbad and The Hangover, Project X takes advantage of the simplicity of a party and runs with it.
If all this sounds like a rip-off of “Superbad,” you’re right.
One of the most underrated films of the past decade has got to be “Adventureland,” the 2009 coming-of-age comedy by Greg Mottola (“Superbad”).
Cooper brings some swagger to the poorly written Costa role, but the other newcomer actors are pretty blank, reminding you just how much crass adventures like producer Todd Phillips' own The Hangover or Superbad relied on actor charisma to hold it all together.
In the vein of films like Superbad and The Hangover, Project X takes advantage of the simplicity of a party and runs with it.
Producer-director Todd Phillips is making a fortune turning out knockoffs of his smash 2009 hit “The Hangover,” and someday he’s going to have to pay for it.
With the slimmest of premises -- clueless parents leave town for the weekend, son and two nerdy buddies unleash a 17th-birthday bash that ravages home and 'hood -- the rude comedy produced by shock director Todd Phillips ("The Hangover") doubles as a parental nightmare.
Are we meant to imagine that producers Todd Phillips (director of Road Trip and The Hangover) and Joel Silver put them together based on fan submissions?
The latest offender is Project X, produced by The Hangover's Todd Phillips and directed by Nima Nourizadeh.
The story of a stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) who discovers he’s a deprogrammed CIA operative and ends up fighting for his life after the agency descends on his small town, it’s a loud, ugly, slapdash combination of action movie, pot comedy, criminal romance, and conspiracy thriller — a mash-up of The Bourne Identity, The Big Lebowski, and Natural Born Killers, and about as lumpy and ungainly as you’d imagine such a stew would be.
Even Jeff Bridges’ Dude in “The Big Lebowski” becomes driven by a quest to retrieve his stolen rug.
Just as The Big Lebowski transformed the Philip Marlowe archetype into a bumbling stoner, American Ultra turns Jason Bourne into Jason Bong.
A manic and shirtless John Leguizamo referencing Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain will earn your laughs.
Pineapple Express (2008)
Directed by David Gordon Green
influenced American Ultra (2015)
Themes Plot
Director Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and scriptwriter Max Landis (Chronicle) could have gone for the laughs in this inhaling assassin scenario, paying homage more to Pineapple Express than The Bourne Identity and its imitators.
It may lose its thread towards the blood-spattered finale, but the two effective leads spearhead a fast, amiable comedy that never outstays its welcome, and will be great fun for fans of films such as 2008's Pineapple Express.
What begins as a clever action-comedy a la “Pineapple Express” or Eisenberg’s earlier “Zombieland” devolves into a standard shoot-’em-up, with gore splashed around to distract us from the dearth of wit.
We've seen some passable entries since, including Grosse Pointe Blank (hit man goes to his high school reunion), and Pineapple Express, which brought the strain of weed into the mix.
It’s a weird, wacked-out, sometimes wonderful mash-up of stoner comedy, spy-conspiracy spoof and hyper-violent teen-romance fantasy—think of Eisenberg and Stewart’s characters several years down the road from their 2009 collaboration Adventureland , caught between The Bourne Conspiracy and Pineapple Express , and spattered with Oliver Stone’s bloody overspray from Natural Born Killers .
This stoner/secret agent mash-up of The Bourne Identity and Pineapple Express promises cross-generic thrills and doesn’t skimp on crunchy violence, but comedy is in far shorter supply.
And at the time, it felt like I was Marlon Brando in "The Wild One."
And now it makes sense that “American Ultra” takes place in a town called Liman, W.V.—perhaps it’s an homage to Doug Liman ’s “ The Bourne Identity ,” with some druggy nuggets of one of the director’s earliest films, “Go.”
The movie compares favorably with Doug Liman ’s “Go,” another late-night waffle run of a movie that didn’t let the modest budget and lack of big set pieces kill the momentum.
At the end of movies like "American Pie" and "Sixteen Candles," you came to really like those kids who partied too hard and woke up the next morning forever changed.
In the ’70s it was American Graffiti, in the ’80s, Sixteen Candles, in the ’90s, American Pie, in the ’00s, Superbad, and now, in the ’10s, it’s Project X .
The all-night-party subgenre has been around for ages, including everything from American Graffiti and Sixteen Candles to Superbad .
It specifically evokes 2007â??s seminal Superbad and 2010â??s underseen The Virginity Hit, each of which more hilariously encapsulated the awkward pursuit of cherry-popping good times, with the latter even employing the same handheld conceit as this film.
The film, like the equally lousy "The Virginity Hit" before it, purports to have been assembled from actual documentary footage shot by some dude with a camcorder following Thomas, Costa and JB everywhere.
Quentin Tarantino didn't originate the method of blending extreme violence with dark comedy but his early films (especially Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction ) popularized it for today's generation.
Taking the nerdy-kids-throw-a-party-and/or-try-to-get-laid template of films such as American Pie and Superbad , Nourizadeh and screenwriters Michael Bacall and Matt Drake strip the formula down to its bare essentials, dispensing with such niceties as character development, life lessons, and any sense of responsibility.
At the end of movies like "American Pie" and "Sixteen Candles," you came to really like those kids who partied too hard and woke up the next morning forever changed.
Together, they become this generation's boozy Three Stooges in this generation's "House Party" or "American Pie."
In the ’70s it was American Graffiti, in the ’80s, Sixteen Candles, in the ’90s, American Pie, in the ’00s, Superbad, and now, in the ’10s, it’s Project X .
Otherwise, Project X is short on fresh characterization, and it didnt have to be that way; Dionysian bashes from Animal House to American Pie found some quirks in their kids.
Where some films (like “American Pie”) feature a key party scene, and other films (like “Superbad” and “Can’t Hardly Wait”) feature an all-night party as the key plot element, they always have more things happening.
Quentin Tarantino didn't originate the method of blending extreme violence with dark comedy but his early films (especially Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction ) popularized it for today's generation.
Nourizadeh is aiming for something along the lines of the subversive superhero send-up “Kick-Ass,” but delivers a tone-deaf bloodbath more akin to the repulsive “Kick-Ass 2.” His first mistake is believing that devising inventive ways for people to die is the impetus for clever comedy.
While directors like Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Kingsmen: The Secret Service), Quentin Tarantino, and even George Armitage (Grosse Pointe Blank) have found the right balance between gonzo violence and offbeat humor, Landis and Nourizadeh mostly flail about, awkwardly lurching from cartoonish sadism to indie-serious romance.
“American Ultra,” like the “Kick Ass” movies, mixes graphic violence and comedy.
It dates back (at least) as far as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and you may also remember it from popular action flicks like The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and The Bourne Identity (2002).
It’s another “clueless innocent becomes a killing machine” riff, a la “The Bourne Identity” or “The Long Kiss Goodnight.”