Nobody 2 starring Bob who?
Anybody who has watched Breaking Bad and the spinoff Better Call Saul knows who Bob Odenkirk is. I couldn’t think of a single place I’d seen him other than from the world of Walter White. And even after an IMDB look, I still only know him from his AMC work. Until, of course, we met Hank Mansell in Nobody.
It was a dark, dark time for theaters
Nobody was a covid movie, released on March 26th, 2021, on day 376 of the two week shutdown to prevent the spread. I remember those days in my local moviehaus. When theaters were again allowed to rip stubs, we were forced to put a buffer between us and my comfy reclining seat always smelled of the disinfectant cleaner that the ushers sprayed between shows. And while exactly when covid ended varies widely around the world, I think we in the US were pretty much over the Kung Flu scare by the summer of 2021. It took businesses a minute to catch up to the popular consensus, and I don’t think our theaters have ever recovered fully (or ever will, sadly).
But back on point
Nobody 2 picks up (more or less) where the first left off. Hutch Mansell has left his mundane existance (well…he kinda blew it up, to be honest) and has returned to the highly skilled gun for higher life he once lived. As one might imagine, that kind of lifestyle brings a lot of stress. A much-deserved vacation is not an unreasonable ask.
Ah, good times
Being the son of a well-travelled gun for hire (the always amazing Christopher Lloyd), Hutch and his brother Harry had so few good family memories. But the one he remembers most fondly is a trip to Plummerville and the tourist-trap ‘Wild Bill’s Majestic Midaway and Waterpark’. So, when he needed a little family time and a break from the grind (literally and figuratively) Hutch offers them the best memory he has. Queue the music.*
As one might have guessed (but not me, I was surprised), Hutch’s Plummerville childhood wasn’t as innocent as he remembered. And why would it be? His dad was a wetworks expert, after all. And it didn’t take a trouble magnet like Hutch long to find the evil underbelly of sunny Plummerville.
So why are there still monkeys?
Nobody 2 gives us more of what we loved in Nobody the first. Odenkirk plays the sad sack everyman character better than anyone. Never getting ahead, keeping his head just above water. Did Nobody 2 improve on it’s predicesor? Eh, no. Not really. But for this character, that’s actually kinda baked into the pie. No matter what situation life puts him in, he’s still that same everyman. The scenery changes but Hutch doesn’t. It’s sort of antithetical to the what we want in our sequels…character development. Evolution. It’s anti-Darwinian, but it works here.
Hey, she doesn’t make the rules. She just enjoys them
Nobody 2 returns all of the original cast (that didn’t get smoked, that is) and boasts some notable new names: Sharon Stone at her maniacal best (if only briefly), Colin Hanks, Colin Salmon, to name a few. And it should not go without mentioning the absolutely timeless Connie Nielson (60), humbly flaunting her ageless freak of nature gene. We should all be so fortunate.**
Nothing wrong with a good, greasy cheeseburger
So, to wrap it all up and put a bow on it that you saved from last Christmas, Nobody 2 is passable August ‘dead zone’ movie. A believable coda to the first and the Average Dude is giving it a modest 3 out of 5. I don’t know if we are hungry enough for a third helping. I kind of hope not. Nobody 2 is a nice cup of vanilla with a splash of chocolate sauce to finish off the Five Guys burger that was Nobody 1. If you go back and have a second dish of soft-serve, it might just make you a little sick.
*I was today days old when I realized Lindsey Buckingham was a dude. And who doesn’t love the dog barking at the end of the song? RIP Dinky.
**That would be me. The Average Dude’s Best Friend calls me a poor man’s Rob Lowe. The Average Dude abides.
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