Nobody 2 Review: Bob Odenkirk Is So Much More Likable As A Sleazy Lawyer Than An Ass-Kicking Dad
I can say that I’ve been a fan of Bob Odenkirk’s going again literal a long time. Within the Nineties, my introduction to him got here by way of the hilarious and sensible sketches on Mr. Present with Bob and David (together with one-off appearances on a few of my favourite sitcoms), and like nearly anybody else you would possibly speak to, I used to be shocked by his flip to the dramatic taking part in the slippery Jimmy McGill a.ok.a. Saul Goodman on Breaking Unhealthy and Higher Name Saul. He’s repeatedly confirmed himself a wise and proficient performer with great vary, and he has a singular charisma that lets him succeed as each a lead and in supporting roles.
Nobody 2
Launch Date: August 15, 2025
Directed By: Timo Tjahjanto
Written By: Derek Kolstad & Aaron Rabin
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, John Ortiz, RZA, Colin Hanks, Christopher Lloyd, and Sharon Stone
Score: R for robust bloody violence, and language all through
Runtime: 89 minutes
For that reason, the Nobody films frustrate me to an amazing diploma. I used to be disenchanted after I noticed the unique again in early 2021; like every fan, I anticipated to take delight within the actor’s first flip as an motion star however as an alternative discovered myself underwhelmed by poor writing and shocked by its dangerous messaging. Issues solely worsen in Nobody 2, because the script this time round is by some means much more rote, and it reveals Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell as a hero that’s fairly rattling not possible to root for, even with the actor’s particular charms.
Like its predecessor, the prequel completely hangs on the viewers’s want to see a expertise like Bob Odenkirk participate in some brutal cinematic violence – however the easy novelty of the essential concept is gone now, and there’s no effort to compensate with anything. What outcomes is watching an unlikable protagonist get locked right into a plot that provides no stakes and what quantities to an disagreeable and unfulfilling cinematic expertise.
After spending Nobody conquering his boring suburban life by reengaging his love of violence, Hutch is reintroduced in Nobody 2 caught in one other rut: he’s pressured to carry out wetwork jobs with a purpose to repay a debt incurred when he set fireplace to the Russian money stash within the first film, and a consequence is that he turns into distanced from his spouse (Connie Nielsen) and two youngsters (Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath). He’s in want of a break, and with bizarrely little pushback from his handler (Colin Salmon), he makes plans for a household trip.
Leaning into the nostalgia of the one journey he took together with his father (Christopher Lloyd) and brother (RZA) when he was a baby, Hutch takes the Mansell clan to Plummerville – a vacationer lure with a water park and varied different actions. What the exhausted murderer doesn’t know is that the place is a secret hub of prison exercise orchestrated by a boss named Lendina (Sharon Stone), and when he will get on the dangerous aspect of the native sheriff (Colin Hanks) and son of the city’s founder (John Ortiz), he finds himself as a goal and his household in peril.
Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell is a awful essential character who solely will get worse within the sequel.
The important thing challenge that haunts Nobody 2 is the truth that the protagonist generates all of his personal issues, and he doesn’t have the likability to make us admire his efforts to dig himself out of the outlet. The world of the movie doesn’t really impose any issues on him: when Hutch needs a trip from his debt-clearing murderer work, it’s granted with none protest or consequence, and regardless of all of his egocentric and violent conduct, there may be seemingly no line that he can cross to earn what could be deserved ire from his household (Connie Nielsen’s Becca does draft a “We have to speak” textual content within the first act when he turns into an absence in her life, however that’s shortly deleted and substituted for an “Okay love u,” and a correct confrontation by no means occurs).
He repeatedly claims that his large motivation is to have a enjoyable trip together with his household stuffed with completely satisfied recollections… however that comes whereas ignoring that he might simply try this by simply going anyplace apart from Plummerville and take his family members to a spot the place their lives aren’t in peril. To be truthful, there are moments the place he makes robust ethical selections (like the choice to rescue a kidnapped teenager he discovers throughout a confrontation in a criminal offense den), however the film places a a lot higher emphasis on his functions of rage in private and petty moments, and it renders him constantly difficult to root for.
Director Timo Tjahjanto’s motion abilities are obvious in Nobody 2, however do not enthrall as they do in his different films.
This dangerous storytelling can’t assist however have a damaging influence on what drives Nobody 2, which is the motion. Director Timo Tjahjanto is an distinctive expertise on the subject of crafting chaotic and brutal combat scenes (2018’s The Evening Comes for Us is so jaw-dropping that it must be pre-empted with a “would possibly trigger TMJ” warning), and there may be some improbable choreography executed – however it’s all empty energy when the principle character’s journey is so pointless and the hazard by no means feels substantial. I can admire the enjoyable that the filmmakers had developing with concepts for easy methods to flip a waterpark right into a slaughterhouse with varied weapons, riggings, and explosives, however that interprets to simply moments of fleeting enjoyable on the massive display screen.
It’s made exceptionally clear all through the brisk 89 minute runtime that Nobody 2 shouldn’t be a movie meant to be taken too severely (finest exemplified within the ludicrous scenery-chewing completed by Sharon Stone in her weirdly truncated, one-note efficiency as the principle baddie). However simply because a film is foolish doesn’t mechanically make it enjoyable, and I undoubtedly didn’t have any enjoyable. It does lots of what its predecessor did, solely worse, and with out even with the ability to activate the well-established charms of Bob Odenkirk, it’s a nasty time on the films.
