When we last saw Hutch Mansell — family man, former government assassin, and the formidable antihero of the 2021 action movie Nobody — he’d burned down his house, taken out most of the Russian Mafia, and resettled in another suburb. The world’s deadliest middle-aged dad also took a mysterious phone call, however, that suggested his retirement would once again be temporary. Plus everyone knows you can’t have a film series if you just stop at one. Given what star Bob Odenkirk went through shortly after the first one hit theaters, there was no telling whether he’d be able to get back into fighting shape for a potential sequel without jeopardizing his health. But you sensed that the good people at 87North Productions, the stunts-friendly company responsible for the original as well as the endlessly franchisable John Wick movies, were ready to go all in on another chapter.
So say a fine howdy-do to Nobody 2, which brings Hutch and his very particular set of skills back for more mayhem. The universal rule of sequels dictates that you give viewers another helping of the same thing yet somehow make it different, the sort of koan that only makes sense to lifelong Zen masters and studio suits. Yet, against the odds, the creators of this continuation have managed to do more than just produce a carbon copy with a new number after the title. The original Nobody was all about reconciling who you were with who you are now, and how the gap between those two versions is smaller than most people think: You might be done with the past, but the past ain’t done with you, etc. This new one suggests it’s not enough to be protective of your loved ones — you also have to be present for them. What, you think professional killers don’t have work-life balance issues?!
You’d assume that the novelty of seeing Odenkirk, having rebranded himself once already from alt-comedy figurehead to respected dramatic actor, engaging in full-tilt action heroics would have worn off a second time around. And yet, the sight of the Mr. Show co-creator/Better Call Saul star taking on four heavily armed thugs in a cramped hotel elevator is still enough to inspire both “OMGs!” and “WTFs?” Ditto the Emmy nominee disarming a gang of machete-wielding goons with little more than a metal rod wrapped around his forearm, his wits and his bloodied fists. It’s just one of several peeks at Mansell’s typical workday, which usually involves a good deal of dead bodies.
All these jobs are paying off a debt to his former handler, the Barber (Colin Salmon), who covered the cost of Hutch burning piles of Russian-mob loot. But the nonstop murder is keeping Hutch from making it home in time for dinner, away from his kids, and being around in general. His wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), wears an expression of perpetual disappointment. His son, Brady (Gage Munroe), is sporting a shiner procured during a high school basketball game; when Dad asks which game, the reply is “the one you missed.” His daughter, Sammy (Paisley Cadorath), barely registers his existence. Hutch is a phantom presence around the Mansell household at best.
So he decides it’s time for a proper family vacation. The destination: Plummerville, a quaint, Middle American everytown with an old-fashioned midway, a water park, and a lot of opportunities to unplug. It’s where Hutch’s dad used to take him for trips when he and his brother, Harry (RZA), were kids. The family pack up the car, pick up Gramps (Christopher Lloyd), and quicker than you can say Wally World, hit the holiday road. Sure, the place isn’t what it used to be, the water park is closed for the day, and the hotel rooms look like they haven’t been renovated since the Nixon era. But the Mansells are experiencing something together, and that’s what counts, right?
In short order, Brady gets mad-dogged by a local bully, Hutch loses his shit, and a peckerwood deputy (Colin Hanks) and the town’s sheriff (John Ortiz) start making his life hell. Punches get thrown, a pinkie finger gets partially severed, a conveniently located buzz saw gets put to good use. Some resident big-time crime lord named Lendina (Sharon Stone) decides that this disruptive tourist needs to be taken care of. Plummerville, it turns out, doubles as a way station for all sorts of contraband. Lendina controls the flow of everything. She gets nasty if things don’t go her way. Or if some out-of-towner blows up a factory with her stuff in it. Look, Hutch promised his wife he wasn’t going to kill anyone on this family vacation, but desperate times call for desperate measures, etc.
“I’m here with my family making memories!” Hutch screams at thugs during a four-on-one melee, and the irony is only flesh-wound deep. Bonding, bloodshed, and bonding through bloodshed — these are the building blocks of Nobody 2, along with establishing that the Mansells’ marriage is more of an equal partnership than previously suggested. As with the first Nobody, you can suss out fading-masculinity-panic and 21st Century Dad anxiety as a subtext, which is delivered here in a bloodier, more kinetic strain than your typical post-Taken action flick. Or you can just bask in Odenkirk kicking ass and killing bad guys in the most inventive ways that director Timo Tjahjanto, and the best fight coordinators and stuntmen in the business, can gin up. Discerning fans of international cinema will recognize the Indonesian filmmaker’s name from 2018’s The Night Comes for Us, which made stellar use of The Raid star Iko Uwais’s talents. Tjahjanto puts his penchant for crafting high-quality adrenaline-dump set pieces to extremely good use here
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By the time we get to the Final Boss battle set in a booby-trapped amusement park, you realize that the film’s lead no longer needs proof-of-concept evidence about whether he can convincingly pull off a normcore Rambo. “What about Bob?” is now a moot question. Odenkirk is an action-movie star now, whether he decides to turn this genre detour into a full-Neeson career pivot or not. (The fact that the Irish actor is now diving headfirst into comedy while the gentleman who once gifted us with this mini masterpiece has become an AARP-adjacent tough guy is pure [chef’s kiss]). Nobody 2 exists simply to extend this concept a few steps further, and anything else — including enjoying Stone in full camp mode; you’ve rarely seen the Basic Instinct siren chew, digest, and expel scenery with such over-the-top glee — is merely a bonus. Nobody would dispute it.
From Rolling Stone US
