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In Nobody 2, Bob Odenkirk returns to kick more ass while on a family vacation, delivering more of the same with a little less charm.
The original Nobody—released 2021–was a pleasant surprise, a lean, mean and lighter take on the John Wick formula. As much as I liked it, I can’t say it was a movie screaming sequel, as much of its allure laid in the “bad guys messing with the wrong guy who is a retired secret ops agent.”
In Nobody 2, Hutch is no longer retired and instead is working to pay off a massive debt incurred by burning $30 million in cash (in the first movie, I assume, I don’t remember). That has strained his marriage in new ways, so Hutch takes his family to a vacation spot he fondly remembered from his childhood. Never mind the fact that the aquatic and arcade park is effectively a front for a massive criminal network led by an insane Sharon Stone.
The marketing got this movie right, with visual and musical cues tying Nobody 2 to National Lampoon’s Vacation. The movie itself doesn’t lean in the same way, and one imagine what this could have been had it effectively been Wallyworld with ultra violence.
As is, it’s a perfectly fine and entertaining action flick with plenty of brutal fight scenes and killing—but not a whole lot else. Nobody 2 plays it straight inside the context of a comedy (an assassin battling bad guys in a theme park while on vacation with his family), which means it sort of misses the point. It has its fun moments, but for the most part new director Timo Tjahjanto doesn’t lean into the concept well enough. The action is good—but not always all that fun, even when Hutch turns his Wallyworld into a boobytrap-filled house of horrors.
Nobody 2 has a villain problem too. Colin Hanks would have made an ideal core bad guy—he’s a corrupt cop with a power trip, but not all that smart—but the movie introduces Sharon Stone as the big baddy… way too late to be anything more than just another obstacle. Her go-for-broke psychopathic performance doesn’t really work; she feels dropped in from an entirely different movie.
Nobody 2, like its predecessor, is efficient, fast-paced, and makes every minute count in its short runtime. The action is strong. But a screenplay more willing to toy with the fun concept and be a little sillier would have helped Nobody 2 stand out—instead of blending in. You know, like a nobody.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
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