Nobody 2 is in theaters Friday, August 15th.
Four years after Bob Odenkirk surprisingly proved he could kill onscreen bad guys in a ruthless manner that would make 1980s-era Schwarzenegger and Stallone pause, the Better Call Saul star returns as Hutch Mansell in Nobody 2. While not quite as strong as the first film, this is ultimately an example of a sequel that offers the-same-but-different in a suitably satisfying and crowd-pleasing way.
Having been revealed to be a former government assassin who’d reinvented himself as a suburban husband and father in the first film, Nobody 2 gives us a Hutch who’s fully back in his old target-seeking life, albeit to pay off a debt. But when he takes his family on vacation to try to get a legitimate break from the daily carnage, wouldn’t you know, the small town they visit turns out to be intertwined with a dangerous criminal syndicate.
With a script from John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and boasting John Wick’s co-director, David Leitch, as a producer, Nobody definitely felt like “What if John Wick but with funnyman Odenkirk?” as its reason for being. The presence of the actor – who had proven his dramatic skills in Better Call Saul but was honed on decades of comedy, including Saul’s initial Breaking Bad depiction – was a tip-off that Nobody was playing things much more comedically than John Wick. However, it did so by mostly keeping a straight face, letting the idea of this hitman in suburbia and the escalating violence and chaos around him drive its humor. When Hutch tussled with a bad guy, he was an absolute badass, with legitimately thrilling and brutal fight scenes. But the movie also maintained its winking tone to let you know they were in on the joke.
But if Nobody felt like John Wick was its inspiration in terms of action and tone, the action in Nobody 2 (also written by Kolstad, along with Aaron Rabin) feels much more like a franchise Leitch also directed an installment of, Deadpool. This time out, the extreme violence gets pushed into more farcical and viscerally cartoonish places. It’s still brutal and intense and at times it’s even more graphic and bloody than the first film. But it’s now doing so in a bigger than life way that ditches the gritty and grounded feel used to house the humor last time. Body parts get blown up and sliced off while cannon fodder henchmen frequently die in nasty, darkly funny ways. It’s all quite entertaining, but it does feel like it loses a bit of the specific vibes that made the first film work so very well.
Even as the action is more outlandish, Odenkirk is still playing Hutch as the same guy, and he once more proves to be a terrific center for this series. The film gets a lot of mileage out of multiple scenes where Hutch tries to not get violent, only for someone to cross a line he just can’t abide. What makes it work every time is you can feel all of Hutch’s disappointment. There’s a resigned “Well, I guess this is what I gotta do…” reaction emanating from Odenkirk’s genuinely warm, sweet performance. Odenkirk sells how Hutch just wants a nice family vacation but damn it, now he’s got to take a few minutes to absolutely decimate some thugs. And, as with the first film, Odenkirk’s considerable fight training with 87North Productions (the stunt-centric production company founded by Leitch and Kelly McCormick) has paid off in him looking impressively credible and believably formidable in his action scenes.
Taking over for the first film’s Ilya Naishuller, Nobody 2 director Timo Tjahjanto brings a slightly more stylized feel to the film that meshes well with its more heightened approach. Though never quite matching the first movie’s best action sequences, such as its prolonged bus fight, there are still a lot of exciting moments here. Teamed with cinematographer Callan Green, Tjahjanto adds some great touches, such as a moment where Hutch shoots a bad guy with a shotgun, which we watch from inside a parked van, as the man’s body is propelled back into the windshield the camera is looking through.
The film’s third act finale showdown is especially fun and cleverly conceived, taking place inside an amusement park that offers a lot of well incorporated locations like a fun house, ball pit and water slide for its many confrontations, all of which are escalated violently by the inclusion of notably lethal booby traps that would make Kevin McCallister envious.
Amongst the supporting cast, it’s good to see the likeable group of Hutch’s wife and kids, played by Connie Nielsen, Gage Munroe, and Paisley Cadorath, more strongly tethered to the central plotline., while Christopher Lloyd and The RZA once more look like they’re having a lot of fun as Hutch’s equally combat-ready father and brother - though The RZA’s role feels a bit more shoehorned in this time out.
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