Movie Review: ‘Nobody 2’

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“Nobody” Hutch Mansell returns for round 2 as he tries to take a vacation from his night job as an assassin paying back a debt from the first movie. There are plenty of spectacular action/fight scenes for fans of the first movie or those that need a John Wick-style fix while waiting for the next Wick movie. The cinematography and locations are visually impressive, and the actors do their best with the story… and that is about where my praise ends. The story itself was bland and full of cliches, repeats from the first movie, and plot holes and plot threads that go nowhere except to the next fight scene. I enjoyed it to a point, but I would only recommend it if you want a mindless action/fight movie.

As the movie begins, after a brief “ending interrogation scene” (like the first movie), Hutch’s dual life as assassin and family man is creating a strain on his marriage and his relationship with his kids. There is a montage of his day-to-day monotony, like the first movie (sensing a theme?) only this time with his violent night job mixed in that leaves little time for his family. So, he chooses to take a vacation and go to the location of the one family vacation he took with his father as a kid to make “happy memories”, not realizing there was a reason his father chose that location (which his father never mentions as he gears up to join them on their vacation). It turns out that the quiet little town with a low-budget amusement park is full of criminal activity that draws out Hutch’s dark side no matter how much he tries to avoid it.

Since this movie is mostly about action, there is little in the way of character development. Aside from Hutch (Bob Odenkirk), Connie Nielsen is back as Hutch’s wife, Becca mostly fretting about their potentially failing marriage and Hutch’s temper. Gage Munroe and Paisley Cadorath are Hutch’s stereotypical son and daughter, Brady and Sammy, respectively. Brady is into sports and is developing his own temper modeled after his father. Christopher Lloyd is back as Hutch’s father David, a retired FBI agent who has very little screen time, disappearing for more than half the movie. New to the cast are Colin Hank as a corrupt sheriff that wants more power and Sharon Stone as the criminal mastermind with slightly more screen time than Christopher Lloyd. John Ortiz’s Wyatt Martin is one of the few with some depth, but that may just be because he flips from bad guy to good guy once Sharon Stone enters the picture.

The comedic elements got a few chuckles out of the audience at the pre-screening I attended, but I found the jokes mostly flat and predictable. Any attempt at dramatic tension (that doesn’t involve a fight scene) is resolved in (what feels like) seconds. There are a few fun twists, and the fight scenes are well-choreographed; just don’t think too much about the plot and enjoy.