Nobody

And we thought John Wick was the only older gentleman in the “beat your face in” game!

Taking a cue from the afore mentioned assassin with a penchant for killing people in the most alarming of ways, Nobody follows a similar story but brings audiences into the fold with Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk), a family man and “normal” guy who’s slowly getting fed up with his repetitive everyday life. But when a home invasion turns into a situation that acts as Hutch’s breaking point, an old version of himself bubbles back to the surface, ready for a return to a life that Hutch had left behind. Before he knows it, his inner John Wick breaks free, unleashing a man who no one would have guessed was part of Hutch while also setting into motion a chain of events that sees him breaking a lot of Russian’s faces in the process.

I gotta be honest, I had no clue what kind of tone this movie was going for when I first heard about it. Was it gonna be a John Wick knock-off with a slightly humorous bent judging by the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul alum and general funny guy cast in Bob Odenkirk? Or was it going to be something entirely different just with a sense of brutal action that would make it standout as something new and inventive? Good news and bad news: it’s a little bit of both.

First and foremost, the big draw in this one is undoubtedly the adrenaline pumping, highly stunt coordinated, real and intense action scenes that permeate the film throughout. And while I’ll do my best to not mention the similarities to the John Wick franchise every five seconds, it can’t be denied that without that gem of modern action movie-making, Nobody wouldn’t exist. Compared to John Wick, the script gives Hutch even less to go on in order to kick-start the over-the-top action that – I can’t stress this enough – is superb, and while Hutch’s one-man mission to take down the people that come after his family is admittedly as thin as it gets, the added family man dynamic and the “I’m bored of my life” angles barely keep the script together when blood isn’t being splashed across the screen.

Ranging from some necessary but slowly paced scenes in between the bombastic hand-to-hand combat ones, to some questionable storytelling devices that barely feel like they were thought out in the grand scheme of things, the action seems to dictate the story and the character of Hutch seems to dictate the action, so when things aren’t going batshit crazy on screen, everything else surrounding it seems a bit undercooked. And even though I truly enjoyed near everything I saw (especially when Christopher Lloyd proves that he’ll always be awesome as shit), I can’t give a pass to a script that felt like it could have tied all of its elements together in a bit neater of a package, a nitpick that the action most definitely overshadows, but doesn’t readily erase.

So while the comparisons to the John Wick franchise are wildly apparent, Nobody does enough on its own to become something highly entertaining and highly unique in a bunch of surprising ways even if the script isn’t always up to snuff. Who knew that Saul Goodman had a mean streak in him, and if the ending of this one is of any indication, a more intense and over-the-top sequel will most definitely be in the cards.