Nobody was a John Wick-ian action fantasy about shedding the straitjacket of suburban domesticity for the liberating pleasures of youth—which, in the case of Hutch (Bob Odenkirk), meant reverting to his old murderous special-ops ways.
What made Ilya Naishuller’s 2021 film work wasn’t just 87North Productions’ trademark brand of ultra-violence; it was the casting of Odenkirk, who, like his character was able to over the course of his odyssey, reveal new, surprisingly deadly sides of himself. It may have been a lark, but its clever melding of star and material gave it an amusing life-kinda-imitating-art oomph.
Having embraced his homicidal side, Hutch attempts to balance his killer career and family in Nobody 2, a sequel, in theaters Aug. 15, that struggles to recapture the energy and amazement of its predecessor. Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto (May the Devil Take You, The Night Comes for Us) is well-versed in inventively gory bloodshed, and Odenkirk remains a likeably unlikely beat-‘em-up hero. Unfortunately, neither can elevate a story that plays as an unnecessary and unfocused addendum. The amusing thrills intermittently appear, but the novelty is gone.
Written by 87North’s favorite screenwriting son Derek Kolstad (alongside Aaron Rabin), Nobody 2 duplicates the prior film’s bookending scenes, with Hutch interrogated in a dark room by police officers, his face bruised, his wrists cuffed, and his identity defined as “Nobody.”
Tjahjanto then leaps backwards to reveal that, though Hutch’s clan—wife Becca (Connie Nielsen), teen son Brady (Gage Munroe), and daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath)—know about his profession, things haven’t changed much in the Mansell household.
Day-to-day routines are still grinding everyone down, to the dismay of Becca, whose frustration with her husband’s absenteeism is a mounting issue. So too is the fact that, as a black eye indicates, Brady is learning the wrong lessons from his father, who’s too busy taking out adversaries with his fists, guns, and a giant fire axe to notice that things are falling apart at home.
Because he torched the Russian mafia’s entire retirement fund at the conclusion of his previous adventure, Hutch is deep in debt to his employer The Barber (Colin Salmon). Nonetheless, after a snatch-and-grab mission that transforms into an extended massacre, Hutch makes good on his promise to Becca to take the family on vacation.
What Hutch wants more than anything is a getaway that will allow them all to “make memories.” Thanks to his own cherished childhood experiences at the place, he chooses Plummerville as their destination, an old-school amusement park with a hotel, carnival rides, and a water park. Despite initial reservations about the place thanks to an aged TV commercial that casts it as a corny and archaic attraction, everyone signs up for Plummerville, including Hutch’s dad David (Christopher Lloyd), a warhorse who spends the film in a Hawaiian shirt, fishing hat, and sunglasses.
As before, Odenkirk is a lethal assassin caught between his love of kin and rage-fueled carnage, and Nobody 2 is most confident when letting him battle a bevy of adversaries who outweigh and outmuscle him by a considerable margin.
Once at Plummerville (whose garish tiki themed rooms serve as an amusing sight gag), Hutch tries to stay straight but quickly reverts to his vicious self, putting him in the crosshairs of menacing Sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks), his superior Henry (John Ortiz), and ultimately, their Big Bad Boss Lendina (Sharon Stone), who views Plummerville as integral to her lucrative bootlegging operation and who doesn’t take kindly to Hutch making waves.
Mayhem follows, costing Hutch the tip of a pinky finger and putting a strain on his marriage to Becca, who can’t believe that her spouse isn’t capable of keeping out of trouble for a single day.
Odenkirk’s protagonist strives to reconcile his opposing impulses in Nobody 2, all as he endeavors to be a better role model for his offspring—or, at bare minimum, to have them turn out slightly more well-adjusted than he did. Those undercurrents, however, are haphazard compared to the original’s underlying ideas, and they’re grafted onto a tale that hits the same notes to diminishing returns.
While the set pieces get progressively bigger and Odenkirk is put through multiple ringers, excitement doesn’t develop at a concurrent pace. By the explosive conclusion, things have grown stale, not to mention pointless, with good guys destined to defeat bad guys in battles that, superficial style notwithstanding, are short on inspiration.
Lloyd’s grandpa David and RZA’s samurai brother Harry are mere plot devices in Nobody 2, and minus consistent humor, the film transforms into a pedestrian genre effort whose fights are a shadow of those found in this summer’s Ballerina.
Stone’s Lendina is a cardboard cut-out kingpin whom the actress distinguishes through smiling sociopathic cruelty and a quick bit of weirdo dancing, and Ortiz and Hanks are capable as two-dimensional characters caught in the crossfire of this brewing war. Nielsen participates in the action to a greater degree than last time around, although she’s still a sidekick in a saga that lets Hutch perform most of the deadly deeds, often with cheeky old-school touches (in particular, a Tommy Gun).
Tjahjanto occasionally breaks up the monotony with a deftly executed sequence, like a humorous static composition of Hutch driving away from a warehouse and then returning to maim and murder, at which point the camera pans left and is suddenly inside a van with a front-row view of the insanity.
Whether it’s his up-close-and-personal staging of a chase on a water park slide (which concludes, ahem, sharply), or his comical use of slow-motion, the director has flair to spare. It’s not enough, however, to validate this second go-round.
Odenkirk is such a terrific actor that it’s difficult to begrudge him his big-screen franchise, and it’s easy to imagine a third Hutch outing that takes better advantage of both the star and the series’ inherent conceit. Yet given this missed opportunity, it’s also possible to envision the film as the end of this chapter in the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul’s actor’s career—and to hope that the next phase is just as unpredictable and rewarding.
