Nobody 2 Review

2021's "Nobody" was a bit of fresh air in the oftentimes stale action thriller genre, taking the niche carved out by the "John Wick" franchise and narrowing its world-building while adding a slight satirical edge. Most films cut from the cloth of Mr. Reeves' franchise take themselves way too seriously, so this lighter helped it stand out.

But uh-oh, with success comes the inevitable sequel, but "Nobody 2" ends up just recycling everything that happened in the first picture and tries pushing it to the next level. But instead of raising the stakes, it makes things feel bloated and self-righteous, the gimmick of a non-action star (Bob Odenkirk) staring in an action movie no longer enough. Add to that a tired script and a vacation artifice and you have a wasted opportunity at the movies.

One interesting thing during my showing was that, near the end of the runtime, I heard a baby cry; I look back and wouldn't you know it, some family brought a literal baby to a rated R film. To the people who did that, you are bad parents.

Bob returns as Hutch, who is now working for The Barber (Colin Salmon), a mysterious man who runs a mysterious business procuring mysterious things, trying to pay off his debts after the events of the first film. He's told he should be "done by spring," or something like that, but if the original was about a man trying to escape his past, this one is all about how that's impossible. Some character development...

Hutch's wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) is frustrated with how little he's around, out working by the time she wakes up and still out come dinner time. And Hutch, well, he's aware that he's not really "present" to his kids when his son Brady (Gage Munroe) has a black eye from an altercation at school. He tells The Barber he needs a break, a vacation if you will, so he takes his nuclear family to Plummerville, a scrubby amusement park/tourist trap that his dad (Christopher Lloyd) took him to when he was young. Cue "Holiday Road-" wait, that only plays during the trailers? Come on!

Problems arise almost immediately when Hutch rubs the local sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks) the wrong way at a hot dog place, but things really heat up when Brady punches another teenager at an arcade. Why? Because he took his sister Sammy's (Paisley Cadorath) stuffed animal and ripped it in half. The family is kicked out of the building, and just as they're leaving, an employee hits Sammy in the back of the head- well, more of a flick, but you get the idea. And, because this is a movie about an assassin on sabbatical, instead of talking to the manager, the police or, you know, just getting the hell out of town, he beats up a bunch of goons inside. Until the cops show up, and we find out that Abel might be the sheriff, but that the town is really run by Wyatt (John Ortiz), owner of the theme park. And that the kid who Brady hit was his son. What a twist, I know.

This is where I thought to myself "OK, the story's established, let's get the plot out of the way," but then the film's like "wait, there's more!" Wyatt might "run" the town, but Abel feels he really should (I don't think either cops or business men should, but I digress). And fine sure, a bit of tension between the two villains is fine I guess, let's move on. But Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin's pompous script's like "no no wait, you'll love this too;" Plummerville is actually a bootleggers town, and working its way though right at this moment is a shipment of MacGuffins for Ledina (Sharon Stone), a ruthless supervillain of sorts who Wyatt owes his own debt to. It is all very complicated, very silly and very unexciting.

Due to plot Wyatt and Hutch team up and booby-trap the amusement park, much like the office in the first movie, but aside from a few neat touches like having a ride fall onto nameless thugs, there isn't really all that done with the environment; most baddies are dispatched by gunshots or explosions, leaving this location as just window dressing for the very same, very old thing.

The casting of Sharon Stone is inspired, and Odenkirk imbues the right amount of weariness into his reprised role, but the magic is gone with round two; the filmmakers try to recapture lightning in a bottle with an opened soda can.

The Pickup Review

"The Pickup" has a talented cast (Eddie Murphy, Eva Longoria, etc.,), a novel plot (guards in an armored vehicle are taken hostage to rob a casino) and action scenes that are refreshingly free of obvious CGI, only to go absolutely nowhere.

Murphy stars as Russell, a veteran armored vehicle guard who is just months away from retiring; he wants to start a bed and breakfast with his wife (a wasted Longoria), and wouldn't ya know it, today is their wedding anniversary. He makes his wife promise she won't be late to their dinner reservations, before he sets off for a day on the job. Unfortunately, he's stuck with the annoying new guy Travis (played by the annoying Pete Davidson), who is gloating about a random hookup he had with a beautiful girl he just met. He actually thought she was robbing the bank he met her at, pulling his gun on her and everything; everyone has worked with an idiot like this, and for the entire runtime I wish he'd just shut up, but I digress.

Russell is also vexed about the route he has today, which takes them through the middle of nowhere in a dead zone (where their radios won't work), as he needs to get back in time for dinner. I know I know, how riveting a plot this is.

And wouldn't you know it, the moment they hit this dead zone, a pair of large SUVs pull up from behind, and a masked figure appears. "Pull over and you won't be hurt," reads a sign the person holds, but if they did that there wouldn't be much of a movie, so instead we get an action scene where they try and get the armored van to stop. The veteran and rookie somehow manage to crash both pursuing cars, but just as they begin patting themselves on the back, one of the crooks manages to sneak onto the back, get inside, and thanks to a gun, brings the armored truck to a stop.

The villain pulls off their helmet and, in something that can only happen in the movies, it turns out to be Zoe, the girl he just slept with the other day. She's played by Keke Palmer, and while she might be great as the straight man in a comedy duo, she simply isn't menacing enough to be taken seriously as the baddie; she just looks too friendly. And not in the "outwardly nice but internally crazy" Gary Busey way- she looks like a dentist or something. But a slight miscast is the least of the problems here.

Her plan is to use their vehicle to make a pickup from a casino, and drive off into the sunset. She gets the sixty million, and they get to walk away with their lives, or so she says, but honestly, who cares? This is Murphy's first action comedy since 2002's "Showtime" that isn't based on an existing property, but he looks absolutely miserable, like someone just sucked all the funny out of him. He might get top billing, but it's Davidson who drives the plot; it's because of him that their characters are in this mess, and he just whines and complains and he just... won't shut up.

And it's a shame because the special effects are handled with surprising finesse, with what looks like actual vehicles driving on actual roads, with actual people hanging off the back door.

"The Pickup" was directed by Tim Story, who brought us the dreadful "Shaft" in 2019 and the equally unpleasant "Tom & Jerry" in 2021, and while there isn't a scene here that hasn't been done before, and done better, I would most certainly watch this over the other two. Faint praise I know, but praise nonetheless.