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Saturday, April 16, 2016

Does 'Mr. Right' Suggest a Max Landis Shared Cinematic Universe?

What if a psychopathic hitman falls in love?  That is basically the premise of Mr. Right, an action romantic comedy written by the polarizing Max Landis.  It tells the story of Francis (Sam Rockwell) and Martha (Anna Kendrick) who meet at a grocery store and hit it off quickly.  Francis’ eccentricity mightily charms Martha, who is a bit batty herself.  They seem to be a perfect match.  Eventually, she discovers the truth, and has to deal with the fact that her “Mr. Right” is a semi-reformed assassin who commonly leaves a pile of bodies in his wake.

Mr. Right is a fun movie mostly, but I also found it uneven at times.  I like its quirkiness, but there are stretches when it gets too quirky that it gets annoying already.  And the story doesn’t pay-off quite as satisfyingly as I wanted it to do.  Still, though it lacks a bit in its execution, it has enough fresh elements to pull off being an amusing movie.

It’s far from being terrific, but it has its share of positives.  The plot has breaths of originality and fascinating details.  It has funny moments and nice fight scenes.   Rockwell and Kendrick have good screen chemistry, and they really sell the crazy love story of their characters quite well.

But the most interesting detail I take from this movie is the brief mention of an “Ultra” project by the CIA.  Could this be the same “Ultra” in American Ultra, a movie that Landis has also written?  Is there a connection?  Do American Ultra and Mr. Right exist in the same universe?  Does this mean we will see a shared cinematic universe among Landis’ works?  Very unlikely, but it’s an intriguing thought.

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