One of the first films to receive a general release during the second year of the last pandemic, Nobody, a mid-budget actioner directed by Ilya Naishuller (Heads of State, Hardcore Henry), offered a new twist on an old formula, an average-looking, unassuming Joe — or rather, Hutch as played by comedian-turned-dramatic-actor Bob Odenkirk (Better Caul Saul, Breaking Bad) — as he cleared his corner of suburbia from a veritable invasion of Russian gangsters and generic goons.
Nobody leaned hard on Odenkirk’s thin, middle-aged frame and his quiet, reserved demeanor. The least likely of killing machines turned out to be the most efficient of killing machines, laying waste to the aforementioned Russian gangsters and generic goons to keep his family, not to mention his country, safe from harm. And lay waste Odenkirk’s character did, stepping into one hyper-kinetic, hyper-stylized action set-piece after another.
Orchestrated by 87North, the stunt choreography company behind the John Wick franchise and its next-level, genre-redefining action scenes, the set pieces in Nobody rarely disappointed, turning Odenkirk into a surprisingly grounded, believable protagonist, Hutch Mansell, a retired government assassin-turned-suburban-dad forced to once again rely on his very special skills. Odenkirk spent the better part of a year training for the role to maximize his time onscreen and minimize his stunt double’s, a decision that resonated with critics and, more importantly, audiences.
The four-years-in-the-making sequel, Nobody 2, picks off where the first entry left off: Hutch, his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), his high-school-aged son, Brady (Gage Munroe), and his daughter, Sammy (Paisley Cadorath), live in another comfortable corner of suburbia. To pay off the considerable debt related to the last film’s events (i.e., burning $30M in Russian mobster money), Hutch works for a super-shady, unnamed government agency led by the self-named Barber (Colin Salmon). One job, retrieving a data card from multiple thugs, leaves Hutch $800K closer to paying off his debt.
Hutch’s last gig has also left him bloodied, bruised, and beaten. Worse, all that wetwork has taken a toll on Hutch and not just physically. Already battered emotionally and mentally, Hutch must also navigate a family unhappy at his repeated absences. Hutch misses family dinnertime almost every night and barely sees them on their way out to work (Becca) or school (Becca and Brady). Seeing his family slipping away from him, Hutch proposes an impromptu family vacation to an old-school water park, Plummerville, the same Plummerville Hutch once visited with his father, David (Christopher Lloyd), and his adopted brother, Harry (RZA).
But as someone points out early on, wherever Hutch goes, there he is. Violence follows Hutch in large part because of Hutch’s violent nature. That and his inability to back down when he witnesses an injustice or sees a water park bouncer shove his daughter. All hell naturally breaks loose, Hutch easily bests every over-sized henchman thrown his way, but it once again leaves his family unhappy, less because he’s putting his fighting skills to positive use (he is), but because he’s ruining their family time. “Making memories,” as Hutch wants, proves harder to create than expected.
What Hutch doesn’t realize, of course, is that the water park and its surrounding environs aren’t just an out-of-the-way, decades-old water park long past its prime. It’s also the central hub for a multi-million-dollar criminal enterprise headed by Lendina (Sharon Stone), a flamboyantly violent, speechifying sociopath with a preference for boxy shoulder pads and up-close-and-personal knife work. A corrupt local sheriff, Abel (Colin Hanks in a neo-Nazi haircut), and the water park’s blackmailed owner, Henry (John Ortiz), also contribute to the Mansell family’s vacation, and not always positively.
Directed by veteran filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (The Shadow Strays, The Night Comes For Us, May the Devil Take You) from a screenplay credited to one of the creative minds behind John Wick franchise, Derek Kolstad, and Aaron Rabin, Nobody 2 moves at a ruthlessly efficient, streamlined clip, reintroducing Hutch, his family, and their current circumstances in a tightly compressed first act before sending the entire family off to their ill-fated vacation in the seeming middle of nowhere (actually Winnipeg, Canada, convincingly substituting for a Southwestern company town).
Tjahjanto adroitly mixes drama, comedy, and action, rarely letting any of the three elements occupy too much of Nobody 2’s sub-90-minute running time. When the action takes over, though, it’s just as wildly, outrageously inventive as anything in Tjahjanto’s oeuvre. On more than one occasion, Tjahjanto disappointingly restrains himself and his penchant for over-the-top ultra-violence, but once Nobody 2 gets to the stunt-heavy third act, it goes for broke: Reams of faceless — or rather masked — henchmen expire in suitably gruesome ways, back-up villains receive their comeuppance satisfactorily, and the primary villain receives a similarly deserved fate, albeit in spectacularly skin-searing form.
Nobody 2 opens theatrically on Friday, August 15th, via Universal Pictures.
