Starting out with Mr. Show in the '90s, it's likely that nobody pegged Bob Odenkirk as a potential action star. Cut to 2021, though, and we have Nobody, with Odenkirk as unassuming suburbanite Hutch Mansell, whose dangerous past comes to light after a break-in threatens his family.
That this bears more than a few similarities to the John Wick movies is no coincidence, seeing as it was written by Derek Kolstad and produced by David Leitch, the pair behind Keanu's stylish murder flicks. This is far from a bad thing; just like John Wick kicks ass, so too does Nobody. It does more to differentiate itself from it's cinematic brethren as well, adding a dash of A History of Violence and upping the volume of winking humour and tongue-in-cheek needle drops to accompany all the bone smashing.
Right, the violence. As opposed to the descent into vengeance of Wick¸ Odenkirk's fights are all unabashed toxic fantasy as he frees himself from his unassertive persona and unleashes his particular set of skills on plenty of unfortunate Russian gangsters. Nobody proceeds with no pretensions: the movie knows what we're here to see, although it takes a bit too long to get to Odenkirk's breaking point. It's also worth pointing out when any modern action movie choreographs and edits fights that you can actually see, as opposed to a blurry mishmash of fists stuffed inside second-long cuts.
Once Odenkirk does give in to his baser urges, however, he's glib and gleeful up against Aleksey Serebryakov's sadistic and slightly campy Yulian Kusnetsov. Mix in a healthy dose of improvisation in the combat and supporting comedic turns from Christopher Lloyd and RZA as Hutch's father and adopted brother respectively, and you've got a potent combo for a ninety-minute actioner.
Since Hollywood has never known well enough to leave a good IP alone, it's probably inevitable that Nobody will become a franchise. Honestly, that might not be a bad thing.
(Universal)That this bears more than a few similarities to the John Wick movies is no coincidence, seeing as it was written by Derek Kolstad and produced by David Leitch, the pair behind Keanu's stylish murder flicks. This is far from a bad thing; just like John Wick kicks ass, so too does Nobody. It does more to differentiate itself from it's cinematic brethren as well, adding a dash of A History of Violence and upping the volume of winking humour and tongue-in-cheek needle drops to accompany all the bone smashing.
Right, the violence. As opposed to the descent into vengeance of Wick¸ Odenkirk's fights are all unabashed toxic fantasy as he frees himself from his unassertive persona and unleashes his particular set of skills on plenty of unfortunate Russian gangsters. Nobody proceeds with no pretensions: the movie knows what we're here to see, although it takes a bit too long to get to Odenkirk's breaking point. It's also worth pointing out when any modern action movie choreographs and edits fights that you can actually see, as opposed to a blurry mishmash of fists stuffed inside second-long cuts.
Once Odenkirk does give in to his baser urges, however, he's glib and gleeful up against Aleksey Serebryakov's sadistic and slightly campy Yulian Kusnetsov. Mix in a healthy dose of improvisation in the combat and supporting comedic turns from Christopher Lloyd and RZA as Hutch's father and adopted brother respectively, and you've got a potent combo for a ninety-minute actioner.
Since Hollywood has never known well enough to leave a good IP alone, it's probably inevitable that Nobody will become a franchise. Honestly, that might not be a bad thing.