A part of the success of the 2021 film Nobody likely had something to do with the novelty that it’s the story of a seemingly ordinary man fighting like a trained assassin against extraordinary forces eager to kill him. At the time, a lot of us probably watched that movie living vicariously through Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell, who just wanted to live a quiet existence with his family after years of working secretly for the government. We, too, wanted to fight back against a powerful enemy as we were still very much living in a pandemic, and seeing a then-58-year-old Odenkirk kicking so much ass felt like a victory for all of us.
Four years later, the franchise has a new director (original director Ilya Naishuller made the terrible Prime Video film Heads of State instead), Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us), and Nobody 2 doesn’t have the same vibe, partly because we now know what Hutch is capable of as a man of action, but also because our collective attitude feels different. We still want to push back against forces of evil (and there are plenty to choose from in the real world), but Hutch’s blunt force trauma version of doing things feels less impactful. And this time around, he brings his family along for the ride, inadvertently, which changes the tone of things considerably.
The running gag is meant to be that Hutch’s wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), doesn’t want him to work while they’re on vacation at a waterpark resort where he and his adoptive brother Harry (RZA) went on vacation with their father (Christopher Lloyd) when they were kids. But the town has changed, and we soon discover that it’s a major way-station for all sorts of illegal activity, overseen by crime boss Lendina (Sharon Stone, giving an early candidate for the worst female performance of the year) and her underlings/local law enforcement, including sheriffs played by John Ortiz and Colin Hanks. With wife, father, and kids in tow, Hutch arrives in town with the best of intentions, but when his son gets in a fight with Ortiz’s son, they immediately attract the attention of the sheriffs’ department, who soon discover that Hutch is very much capable of defending himself. And things basically escalate from there.
Going into anymore detail would be pointless because you know what happens. The bad guys threaten the entire Mansell clan, and Hutch systematically deals with them, with some assistance from most members of his family. It’s predictable, the action isn’t especially inspired, the blood splatter is clearly CG effects, and the things that made the original Nobody stand out from other action movies of the time have been eliminated and replaced with generic and familiar set pieces.
Even Odenkirk seems to be working at half speed, which is the wrong speed for action. The only highlights include better-than-average supporting work from RZA and Hanks, but nothing in Nobody 2 feels genuinely dangerous, edgy, or even darkly funny. Despite the blood and guts, the film is a tame, watered-down version of the first chapter, which was only an elevated B-movie with a slight twist, to begin with.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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