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‘Nobody 2' Review: Bob Odenkirk Faces Off Against a Scenery-Chomping Sharon Stone in Entertaining Sequel
Imagine National Lampoon's Vacation crossed with First Blood and you have some idea of the delirious action comedy that is Nobody 2. This sequel to the 2021 surprise hit brings back the suburban family you've come to know and love, and like many a loving clan, they've got their share of problems. In particular, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) and wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) are drifting apart, mainly because he's working all the time to pay off their debts, and kids Brady (Gage Munroe) and Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) feel neglected.
Sounds perfectly ordinary, except for the fact that Hutch is a professional assassin with a special set of skills, and the debt he owes is $30 million dollars to the Russian mob after he made the mistake of burning their money in the last film. He's tired, especially after an assignment goes harrowingly wrong in the film's entertainingly over-the-top opening, in which he's forced to face down not one but three sets of lethal opponents.
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A family vacation seems in order, and Hutch knows just the place. It's Plummerville, the summer resort town featuring an amusement park that he has fond memories of going to as a kid. So he picks up his elderly father (Christopher Lloyd) at the old age home and brings them all to the now run-down town for some innocent fun. Except if you've seen Nobody, you have a pretty good idea that innocent fun doesn't come easily to Hutch.
Much of the first film's pleasure came from the gradual reveal that its unassuming, middle-aged central character was in fact the sort of badass who can overcome gangs of lethally armed men half his age. That element of surprise is inherently missing in the sequel, to its detriment, but screenwriters Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin's simple but ingenious premise provides plenty of amusement. After all, who can't relate to someone desiring a simple vacation with their family only to have work issues get in the way?
It all begins innocently enough, with an altercation at an arcade between Brady and another boy who accuses him of hitting on his girlfriend. In the ensuing melee, an overly aggressive security guard makes the mistake of whacking Hutch's young daughter on the head. Hutch manages to get his family out before claiming he's forgotten his cell phone and returning to the arcade to get medieval on the employees.
This arouses the ire of the town's belligerent sheriff (Colin Hanks, playing against type) and crooked theme park owner (John Ortiz) who decide to get revenge on the apparent family man causing them trouble. And that, of course, is when all hell breaks loose, as Hutch learns that the town is the center of operations for female crime boss Lendina (gleefully played by Sharon Stone). She's the sort of psycho who owns a casino where the penalty for cheating is death, which she administers personally.
Director Timo Tjahjanto (May the Devil Take You, The Night Comes for Us), taking over from the previous film's Ilya Naishuller, stages the mayhem-filled proceedings expertly, perfectly realizing the franchise's blend of bone-crushing violence and slapstick humor. The stunt team and fight choreographers deserve tremendous credit as well.
Not to mention Odenkirk, who one-ups Liam Neeson in not only becoming an unlikely action movie star at a mature age but also displaying an impressive physicality in the elaborately staged fight scenes. Much of the fun comes from the incongruity of this seemingly mild-mannered figure suddenly springing into violent action, making inventive use of whatever random objects happen to be nearby that he can transform into lethal weapons. There aren't many actors, after all, who can convincingly play both sad-sack real estate salesman Shelly Levene in a Broadway production of Glengarry Glen Ross and a lean, mean killing machine.
The formula admittedly wears thin over the course of its running time, especially in a well-staged but familiar-feeling climactic battle between Hutch plus several collaborators, including his elderly father and adopted brother Harry (RZA), and Lendina's heavily armed minions in a booby-trapped amusement park. But the filmmakers keep things moving at such a brisk pace (the film clocks in at a mercifully brief 89 minutes) that you go along for the ride, and there are so many terrific action sequences and injections of mordant, deadpan humor that it proves wildly entertaining. 'Plummerville is not as friendly as I remembered it to be,' a bone-weary Hutch comments at one point.
That's especially true when it comes to Stone, who seems to be having the time of her life hamming it up as a Cruella de Vil-style villain, who at one point performs what can only be described as an evil dance. Her work here is not subtle, but subtlety isn't what you're looking for in a Nobody movie.
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