Nobody 2

Nobody 2 Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, John Ortiz, RZA, and Sharon Stone

Director: Timo Tjahjanto

What’s Good: There are some cool action sequences here and there, and Bob Odenkirk sells the action in ways that no one would expect from him, even now.

What’s Bad: The script is just lazy, the premise is a good one, but it is not developed to its fullest.

Loo Break: The film slows down quite a bit towards the start of the third act, and so there is a break right there.

Watch or Not?: Watch only if you love Odenkirk, or if you loved the first one; this is not the best action film out there.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 89 Minutes.

User Rating:

Action films are the bread and butter of cinema. As we know, some of the first films ever created were action films, where we could see people doing the most amazing stunts thanks to movie magic. The genre has remained part of our collective consciousness, and in the past decade, many improvements have been made to the formula. However, and sadly, Nobody 2 arrives at the end of that wave, and it feels a bit stale compared to what came before.

Nobody 2 Movie Review: Script Analysis

If there is something that is really hurting Nobody 2 is its script, which has a very cool premise but never goes forward with the idea as it should, and the result is a film that has no punch, no personality, and becomes stale in ways that it shouldn’t. In this new installment, we see Hutch dealing with his work as a hitman and his family, who now know his secret life, feel like he loves his work more than he loves them. To fix this, Hutch decides to take the family on Vacation, but, of course, things don’t happen the way they expect.

A version of “Vacation” but made by the 87th North crew and directed by Timo Tjahjanto? It sounds like a match made in heaven. But the script doesn’t really go anywhere with that idea and places the characters in the most clichéd and boring possible situations, which is a shame because both Bob Odenkirk and Connie Nielsen are doing their best, and their chemistry really elevates the material. This has been a problem for 87th North Productions in the past, empty scripts with no soul or emotion, which results in fighting for the sake of fighting.

It doesn’t matter how amazing an action sequence can be when the characters involved in the fight don’t really matter to the audience, and Odenkirk’s charisma can only do so much. The film is also quite short, at just 89 minutes, and instead of making the film feel like a tight and concise story, it feels like writers Aaron Rabin and Derek Kolstad just couldn’t come up with anything interesting to write. It is that, or maybe tons of scenes were left on the cutting room floor.

The result is a film that lacks imagination and feels like it is the sight of the new wave of action cinema coming to a halt, repeating the same camera trick, and premises too many times, and becoming as boring and predictable as the films that came before it. The film is still entertaining, but you can feel there is just so much that could have been done here.

Nobody 2 Movie Review: Star Performance

Nobody 2 is still a star vehicle for Bob Odenkirk, who has had the most amazing and unexpected career ever, starting as a comedian, then a writer, then a supporting actor, and finishing as an action star. We love Odenkirk, and in this film, he is just lovable. He tries to do his best, but the script is too weak and lazy, and doesn’t really capitalize on his amazing skills as an actor or as a comedian.

Connie Nielsen does an amazing job as well. She is charming, beautiful, and has just as much charisma as Odenkirk. However, again, the script betrays her by making her character as boring as it can be, and she cannot brute-force through the material. The rest of the cast does fine, but Sharon Stone feels like an extended cameo more than an actual character that moves the story, especially considering that she is supposed to be the villain.