Nobody 2
The hapless office worker played by Bob Odenkirk returns to the fray in a mindless slapstick actioner that thinks it’s John Wick Snr.
The terminator: Bob Odenkirk
Image courtesy of Universal Studios.
Nobody was one of the unexpected pleasures of the 2001 summer. The fun bit was seeing how a man crippled by cowardice could step up to the plate and achieve what was, for him, the impossible. It was only in the last stages of the film that things descended into formula and the wildly improbable, leaving any traces of American Beauty in the dust. Part of the film’s success was in the unlikely casting of Bob Odenkirk, who embodied the Everyman quality of an office worker stuck in a rut. At the start of Nobody 2, there is an echo of the old, unappreciated Hutch Mansell as, at the start of the day, he is virtually ignored by his son, his daughter and the bin man. He is still a nobody.
However, before this pointless sequel even has a moment to breathe, we watch as Hutch incapacitates an elevator full of gunmen, and then a gang of Corsicans armed with MP7s and finally a small army of Brazilians wielding machetes (“the sharp kind”). He retrieves an invaluable flash drive for his ‘handler’, the Barber (Colin Salmon), but is told he is still in debt to the tune of $30 million, having torched the Russian mafia’s cash in the first film. As far as the Barber is concerned, Hutch still has some assignments to fulfil. “This job is in your nature,” the latter maintains. “And nature always wins.”
The joke is that Hutch Mansell is still a nobody to the rest of the world, particularly to his wife and kids. He is given a new mission and decides to take along the family as camouflage, to a ghastly water park of tacky, manufactured “fun”. “We’ll make some happy memories” he assures his kin as they set off for a vacation they will never forget.
With a new director on board with a background in action cinema (Killers, Headshot, The Shadow Strays), Timo Tjahjanto’s Nobody 2 lurches from domestic satire into a full-blown action pic. The combat is relentless, stoked by exaggerated sound effects, with one absurd set piece replaced by another, along with cartoon villains and predictable surprises. To up the ante, Hutch is now painted out to be a hapless tourist and family guy who inadvertently upsets a she-wolf who is said to flay the family members of her victims on their front lawns. “You fucked with the wrong bitch,” cackles Sharon Stone who, to put it charitably, was probably having fun with her character. But as the meaningless mayhem continues, with the action overdubbed with a slew of hit numbers (from Tony Bennett to Céline Dion), one’s heart plummets to new depths. John Wick as geriatric? Actually, Bob Odenkirk is only two years older than Keanu Reeves, but that is another conversation.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, John Ortiz, Colin Hanks, RZA, Colin Salmon, Christopher Lloyd, Sharon Stone, Jacob Blair, Paisley Cadorath, Gage Munroe, Daniel Bernhardt, Lucius Hoyos.
Dir Timo Tjahjanto, Pro Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Bob Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero and Braden Aftergood, Ex Pro David Hyman and Tobey Maguire, Screenplay Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin, Ph Callan Green, Pro Des Michael Diner, Ed Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, Music Dominic Lewis, Costumes Patricia J. Henderson, Sound Patrick Haskill, Ryan Nowak and Gregorio Gomez, Dialect coach Nadia Venesse.
87North Productions/Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment-Universal Pictures.
89 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 15 August 2025. Cert. 15.
