by guest critic Michael Clark
From a creative perspective, there’s little new under the sun when it comes to original movie content and this is no more so evident than within the action genre. You make sure to include some guns, explosions, car chases, fisticuffs, carnage and maybe some skin and you’ll probably come up with an audience winner. A good story is always desirable but not really necessary. These movies aren’t appreciated because of their complex plots and deep personal introspection.
Every once in a great while however, we get something more meaningful: Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Die Hard, Terminator 2, the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy and the first two installments of the John Wick franchise. Some folks might also include the James Bond, Star Wars and Avengers flicks on their list, but those collections contain far too much overall filler.
Nobody is penned by John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and it contains all of the elements of that production and other off-kilter action movies. It’s a Tarantino revenge flick mixed with Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Die Hard, and the first RED. It’s an amalgam which is at once thoroughly derivative and completely original. If you’re looking for something to take your mind off of everything while satisfying your blood lust and tickling your funny bone, this is your movie.
Bob Odenkirk stars as Hutch, a number-crunching accountant drone whose mind-numbing routine is expertly laid out in the first two minutes by sophomore Russian director Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry). Hutch is married to the (seemingly) more successful real estate agent Becca (Connie Nielsen) and they have a son Blake (Gage Munroe), neither of whom respects him very much. Only his daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) holds him in any kind of esteem and both of them love cats.
After a late night home break in where Hutch is left even more emasculated do things begin to change. Triggered and fed-up, Hutch begins his journey of retribution, starting with finding the nervous thugs who broke into his home. Next up is a scene on a bus set to the backdrop of Steve Lawrence’s 1967 version of “I’ve Got to Be Me.” It is so complex and is so expertly choreographed, it looks as if it took weeks to shoot and matches the visceral rush of anything seen in the first two John Wick movies.
In a manner similar to that in first John Wick flick, the filmmakers make the best use of the air-tight 92 minute running time which, in lesser competent hands, would have easily required over two hours. Whether it be a poster at a bus stop, repeating scenes including additional data, fleeting glimpses of multiple tattoos or one of the best MacGuffins of all time (a child’s bracelet), there is not a single wasted frame, glance or image to be found. Nobody is a 100 percent fat-free movie.
Taking as long as absolutely possible (in a good way) Naishuller and Kolstad open the second act with the introduction of primary villain Yulian (Aleksei Serebryakov – think a slimmed-down blonde version of Brendan Gleeson), a stone-cold Russian mob boss. After breaking several traffic laws, Yulian enters his own night club, does a shot, snorts some coke, sings and dances and disfigures an underling who looked at him without smiling. Yulian has zero patience for error and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Some viewers might consider the inclusion of a Russian villain as being too similar to that of the first John Wick movie and they wouldn’t be entirely off-base. Add to that the two films' protagonists' desire to rid themselves of their respective past professional lives and the whole “recycle” thing would have great validity. As stated earlier, there’s nothing new under the sun; however, in the great scheme of things, when compared to other mob/crime movies, none besides the Wick films and Nobody share this premise/plot overlap and it is there is where the comparisons should end.
John Wick was a widower, Hutch is not. Hutch has children, Wick did not. Domesticated animals are involved in both movies, yet in radically different ways. The biggest difference is that Wick is played by marginal thespian and action star veteran Keanu Reeves. Former comedian Odenkirk has range to burn. He’s Saul Goodman, the morally compromised lawyer from Breaking Bad and its spinoff, Better Call Saul, with no action films on his resume, and there’s the rub.
Odenkirk will be 60 next year and is as unlikely a badass action star as there is in the movie business, yet his character is thoroughly plausible (thanks mostly to a mysterious back story) and he pulls it off without a hitch. The ending of movie provides more than sufficient closure but could easily lead to a sequel (or two), which would thrill grandmothers, grandfathers and great-grandparents the world over.
There’s not many action movies with enough brains, blood, mirth and style that can attract ages from 18 to 70. For that reason alone, Nobody brings with it practical universal adult-audience appeal.
Rated R for strong violence and bloody images, language throughout and brief drug use.
Grade: **** out of ****
Every once in a great while however, we get something more meaningful: Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Die Hard, Terminator 2, the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy and the first two installments of the John Wick franchise. Some folks might also include the James Bond, Star Wars and Avengers flicks on their list, but those collections contain far too much overall filler.
Nobody is penned by John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and it contains all of the elements of that production and other off-kilter action movies. It’s a Tarantino revenge flick mixed with Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Die Hard, and the first RED. It’s an amalgam which is at once thoroughly derivative and completely original. If you’re looking for something to take your mind off of everything while satisfying your blood lust and tickling your funny bone, this is your movie.
Bob Odenkirk stars as Hutch, a number-crunching accountant drone whose mind-numbing routine is expertly laid out in the first two minutes by sophomore Russian director Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry). Hutch is married to the (seemingly) more successful real estate agent Becca (Connie Nielsen) and they have a son Blake (Gage Munroe), neither of whom respects him very much. Only his daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) holds him in any kind of esteem and both of them love cats.
After a late night home break in where Hutch is left even more emasculated do things begin to change. Triggered and fed-up, Hutch begins his journey of retribution, starting with finding the nervous thugs who broke into his home. Next up is a scene on a bus set to the backdrop of Steve Lawrence’s 1967 version of “I’ve Got to Be Me.” It is so complex and is so expertly choreographed, it looks as if it took weeks to shoot and matches the visceral rush of anything seen in the first two John Wick movies.
In a manner similar to that in first John Wick flick, the filmmakers make the best use of the air-tight 92 minute running time which, in lesser competent hands, would have easily required over two hours. Whether it be a poster at a bus stop, repeating scenes including additional data, fleeting glimpses of multiple tattoos or one of the best MacGuffins of all time (a child’s bracelet), there is not a single wasted frame, glance or image to be found. Nobody is a 100 percent fat-free movie.
Taking as long as absolutely possible (in a good way) Naishuller and Kolstad open the second act with the introduction of primary villain Yulian (Aleksei Serebryakov – think a slimmed-down blonde version of Brendan Gleeson), a stone-cold Russian mob boss. After breaking several traffic laws, Yulian enters his own night club, does a shot, snorts some coke, sings and dances and disfigures an underling who looked at him without smiling. Yulian has zero patience for error and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Some viewers might consider the inclusion of a Russian villain as being too similar to that of the first John Wick movie and they wouldn’t be entirely off-base. Add to that the two films' protagonists' desire to rid themselves of their respective past professional lives and the whole “recycle” thing would have great validity. As stated earlier, there’s nothing new under the sun; however, in the great scheme of things, when compared to other mob/crime movies, none besides the Wick films and Nobody share this premise/plot overlap and it is there is where the comparisons should end.
John Wick was a widower, Hutch is not. Hutch has children, Wick did not. Domesticated animals are involved in both movies, yet in radically different ways. The biggest difference is that Wick is played by marginal thespian and action star veteran Keanu Reeves. Former comedian Odenkirk has range to burn. He’s Saul Goodman, the morally compromised lawyer from Breaking Bad and its spinoff, Better Call Saul, with no action films on his resume, and there’s the rub.
Odenkirk will be 60 next year and is as unlikely a badass action star as there is in the movie business, yet his character is thoroughly plausible (thanks mostly to a mysterious back story) and he pulls it off without a hitch. The ending of movie provides more than sufficient closure but could easily lead to a sequel (or two), which would thrill grandmothers, grandfathers and great-grandparents the world over.
There’s not many action movies with enough brains, blood, mirth and style that can attract ages from 18 to 70. For that reason alone, Nobody brings with it practical universal adult-audience appeal.
Rated R for strong violence and bloody images, language throughout and brief drug use.
Grade: **** out of ****
Universal
Presented in English with subtitled Spanish and Russian.
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