Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart previously costarred together in Superbad director Greg Mottola's acclaimed coming of age comedy/drama Adventureland back in 2009. The pair will reunite onscreen in 2015 for American Ultra, a very different sort of love story - one that involves a pothead who's actually a sleeper agent with the abilities of Jason Bourne, as the new red band trailer reveals.

Backing up a bit - American Ultra stars Eisenberg as Mike Howell, a small-town stoner who's ready to take his relationship with girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart) to the next level, by proposing to her. However, that plan gets put on the back-burner when government officials show up looking for Mike; who, as it turns out, has a past as a deadly operative. Problem is, he doesn't exactly remember that, but quickly has to get in touch with his inner badass when he and Phoebe find themselves caught up in a dangerous secret government operation.

American Ultra's story and script by Max Landis (Chronicle) does seemingly bear a resemblance to fellow stoner action/comedy Pineapple Express (albeit, with a romantic rather than bro-mantic angle), judging by the red band trailer footage. At the same time, though, American Ultra appears to offer a different flavor of entertainment than that Seth Rogen/James Franco buddy romp - one that's riffing on a lot of popular genre tropes (see the bullet-in-the-pan gag), in what does seems to be a potentially fresh and clever fashion.

It helps that Stewart's character looks to be very much a part of the action/madness than ensues along the way, so that American Ultra doesn't just come off as yet another zany comedy about a manchild who learns to grow up. Indeed, American Ultra has the makings of another worthwhile addition to Stewart's increasingly eclectic post-Twilight work, which already includes Still Alice, Camp X-Ray, and Clouds of Sils Maria.

American Ultra with Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg

Project X director Nima Nourizadeh was responsible for calling the shots on American Ultra; the latter film will have a similarly anarchic design as Nourizadeh's freshman directorial feature (going off the red band footage), but with more polish befitting a non-found footage movie. American Ultra might be a bit too unusual to have mainstream appeal, but there's certainly a crowd that ought to be willing to give this one a chance - and who knows, maybe it will be another Zombieland style unexpected hit to add to Eisenberg's resume. (Maybe not so much the next 30 Minutes or Less, though.)

Rounding out the American Ultra cast are such names as Connie Britton (Nashville), Topher Grace (Predators), John Leguizamo (Chef), Walton Goggins (Justified), and Bill Pullman (Independence Day), among others.

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American Ultra opens in U.S. theaters on August 21st, 2015.

Source: Yahoo! Movies