Review: Unoriginal ‘Nobody 2' forgets what worked in the original

Chicago Tribune

2 days ago

Just about anyone can be an action hero when production company 87North — the team behind the 'John Wick' franchise — is behind the camera. They proved that in 2021 when they made comedian and 'Better Call Saul' star Bob Odenkirk a surprise badass in the hyper-violent dadsploitation flick 'Nobody.'
Odenkirk played Hutch, a suburban dad and corporate stooge with a surprising past, who is unable to keep a lid on his instincts, like a kettle boiling over, when his family is threatened. In the sequel, 'Nobody 2,' Hutch has found his groove, and once again he's fallen into a routine of quotidian drudgery, delivering brutality day in and day out, in an attempt to pay off his debt — not that the script by Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin recaps anything from the first film. But all you need to know is that Hutch is a dad, his job is violence, and he needs a break.
Desperate to save his marriage and family, Hutch decides to take his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), and kids Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) and Brady (Gage Munroe), as well as his wacky former FBI agent dad (Christopher Lloyd), on a summer break trip to one of his beloved childhood haunts: Plummerville Tiki Rush, a ramshackle water park somewhere in the Upper Midwest. He's trying to get away from it all, but as his handler The Butcher (Colin Salmon) reminds him, 'Wherever you go, there you are.'
And there Hutch goes. Try as he might to take a break from himself, he can't escape his true nature when a scuffle breaks out at an arcade and a security guard swats Sammy. The resulting brawl, set to the Offspring's 'Come Out and Play,' is one of the best moments of 'Nobody 2' — funny, colorful, innovative. Hutch's greatest strength is his MacGyver-like ability to use every tool and random object around him in service of violence, and he plays Whack-a-Mole with the guard's head.
Much like that other Kolstad-scripted character, John Wick, Hutch is a reluctant warrior, desperate to avoid using his skills, but seemingly unable to stop, whether by obligation or training. But where Wick is brooding and operatic, 'Nobody' is cheeky and irreverent, because 87North shapes their action franchises to the star, not the other way around. 'Nobody 2' maintains that sense of humor, now with Timo Tjahjanto taking over directing duties from Ilya Naishuller.
But 87North also has a house style now, both aesthetically and thematically, and both 'Nobody 2' and Tjahjanto fall prey to that formula. There are a few great action sequences that utilize Hutch's inventive thinking and emphasize the incongruity of his skills. The camera will follow the impact of a smash, the swing of a punch, and the violence is satisfyingly crunchy as usual. But the script itself feels dashed off like an afterthought, reverse-engineered around a few key set pieces in the amusement park.
What works about these movies is Odenkirk, his pained expression as he resorts to inflicting pain and destruction, his blackout rage mode when protecting his family. The first antagonist they introduce, a bootlegger named Henry (John Ortiz), who is also an overprotective dad, matches that energy perfectly.
So why, then, do Kolstad and Rabin jettison that villain who fits the rural setting for a slick, glamorous gangster that is Sharon Stone in a three-piece suit? As a psychopathic mob boss with a French bulldog puppy and 87North regular Daniel Bernhardt as her right-hand man, Stone is certainly having fun, but her character, Lendani, feels wildly out of place.
'Nobody 2,' which plays on the juxtaposition of the suburban and the super-violent, works when it's Hutch facing off with the redneck good ol' boys on a duck boat, not when he's going through the motions with an elite villain who feels like she's 'from the world of John Wick.' It's like their wires got crossed in the writing, and the Lendani plot feels forced, sludgy and totally unnecessary.
However, everyone seems to be having a good time, from Stone to Ortiz to Colin Hanks as a mean sheriff with a bad haircut, and especially RZA as Hutch's brother Harry, in full ninja nerd mode. At 89 minutes, with a few pops of amusement and levity, there are worse ways to spend an August afternoon. Yet the story feels so thin, the script so rote, that it's a disappointment from the surprising appeal of the first film. All the elements were there to make 'Nobody 2' a great sequel — it just seems like nobody really thought about what makes the original really work.'Nobody 2' — 2 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence and language throughout)
Running time: 1:29
How to watch: In theaters Aug. 16