Film Review: Nobody 2

 

Sexuality/Nudity Mature

Violence Mature

Vulgarity Mature

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Mature

Sometimes you just want to sit in a dark movie theater with your bucket of popcorn and large soda and just watch some fun, mindless violence.  Perhaps it is something hard-wired in the male brain that taps into something primal and irrational, but there it is.

And Nobody 2 delivers exactly this.

The story picks up a few years after the first movie.  Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is in the process of paying the debts he incurred by taking hit man jobs.  Unfortunately, this is causing strain on his family and his wife Becca (Connie Neilsen) is feeling less and less connected to him.  Feeling this pressure, Hutch decides to take his family on a vacation to an old waterpark that his father (Christopher Lloyd) took him to as a child.  However, when they get there, they run afoul of the corrupt local authorities who are connected to large criminal organization led by Lendina (Sharon Stone).  Before he knows it, Hutch is once again caught in a bloody conflict that he would much rather avoid.

Again, there is nothing particularly deep or what you would call high art in this movie.  That isn't to say that it is in any way bad.  In fact, it is very good at what it does.  And that isn't to say that it lacks thematic strength.  The previous movie was a metaphor for how beaten down by life middle-aged men feel.  This movie is about work-life balance.  Sure, Hutch's work involves him murdering bad guys in creative ways, but you can oddly relate to the feeling of how your job keeps you from your family.  I also like how Hutch's son Brady (Gage Munroe) is picking up his violent tendencies and how that wears on Hutch.  This rings true about how parents hope to pass on their virtues and fear that they are passing on their vices.

There is something too about this movie that just taps into the masculine urge to protect.  There is a scene in the movie where the security guards at an arcade harass Hutch's family.  Not wanting any trouble, Hutch escorts his family out.  But on the way out, the security guard smacks Hutch's young daughter (Paisley Cadorath) on the back of the head.  Hutch cannot let that pass.  As he returns, his wife tells him not to, but he goes anyway to go banalana on them.  One of the things I liked about this scene is that even though his wife told him not to, he was compelled.  She was incredibly upset at what he did, but I got the strong sense that if he did nothing, part of her would have resented him for doing nothing.  

The best part of the movie is the action.  I am still amazed at how powerful and believable Odenkirk is in this role.  There was never a time where I thought he seemed to old or out of shape to take down the bad guys.  The movie wisely makes the bad guys evil enough to let you feel justified in cheering for Hutch.  But every once and a while they take some of the "villains" into some surprising character arcs.  

This movie made me think of both Zombieland and Home Alone as the final act involved setting deadly and creative boobytraps at the water park.  It wisely takes the familiar and fun and environment and figures out how to make it a place of deadly action.

Odenkirk's performance is as good as the first.  He is a weary warrior who is trying to avoid a fight he can't.  There is a point in the movie where he is almost out of the conflict, but something happens that compels him to keep fighting.  Odenkirk shows us how Hutch's code forces down the path of violence.  Nielsen is also excellent.  She and Odenkirk have great chemistry.  She is always feminine, but she is never a damsel in distress.  Lloyd is always great, even when he doesn't have a lot to do.  Colin Hanks plays a corrupt deputy and John Ortiz plays a beleaguered businessman; both actors do a decent job, but nothing outstanding.  Stone's villainess is way over-the-top.  She swings for the fences, but her character is a swing and a miss.  

If you are someone who has a moral issue with this type of stylized and bloody violence, then this movie is not for you.  Hutch understands that this darkness in him has the ability to corrupt his family.  The movie touches on that subject, but doesn't follow it all the way down to examine the consequences of this life of sin.  But the movie takes a more comedic tone here so that the violence is less realistic and more metaphorical.  At least that is how I look at it so that it more morally palatable.

I am very curious as to where they will take the story if they do a third movie.  I'm not sure where the story will take us, but I am up for the trip.