Nothing beats a Nobody 2 holiday.
Nobody 2 wastes little time reminding us why Hutch Mansell made such an unlikely but satisfying action hero and Nobody such a guilty pleasure in the first place. Bob Odenkirk slips back into the weary day to day grind with the same bruised charisma and knack for selling both a pratfall and a headshot in the same breath only this time he’s back to doing what he does best – but this time he’s back working for “The Barber” to clear the debt he ran up when he torched the Russian Mob’s Obshchak.
While Hutch (Odenkirk) is trying to make good on his promise of a more present life for wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) and the kids, his revived career of violence is causing him to miss too many family dinners for comfort. His solution? A family vacation to Plummerville, site of his only family holiday as a child. The mission: make some memories as a family. Arriving at the resort to find the water park closed for repair, a visit to the arcade quickly escalates when Hutch just can’t turn a blind eye to some local bullies. But it’s a run-in with the crooked Sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks) and the compromised owner of the resort, Wyatt (John Ortiz) that lights the fuse that turns a carefree family vacation into a funfair-set battle royale against ruthless crime boss Lendina (Sharon Stone).
Odenkirk once again makes Hutch a joy to watch, his everyman exasperation as engaging as his unassuming lethality. There are moments when you’re absolutely on the edge of your seat waiting for Hutch to have reached his absolute limit and when they come, you’ll be hard pressed not to do a little fist pump of delight as Hutch’s righteous fury delivers another smackdown on behalf of all of us. While Christopher Lloyd’s zanily irreverent grandpa is along for the ride from the get-go, RZA arrives a little later to the party, but just in time for the grand carnival of carnage as director Timo Tjahjanto mines the amusement park setting for a cavalcade of violent set-pieces, staging the sharp, brutal, action with a wry wink that just about keeps the tone from tipping into self-parody.
Despite its frontloaded action-packed opening, Nobody 2 does stumble a little at the beginning, struggling to find its rhythm and contrive a reason to get the family to the place they need to be for the real fun to begin, although when they do get there boy is it a lot of fun. Thanks in part to its lean runtime of just shy of an hour and a half, some of the family character arcs end up neglected, with Hutch’s son Brady’s struggle to follow or not follow in his father’s footsteps somewhat underdeveloped and Connie Nielsen’s characterisation all over the place, alongside a clumsily foreshadowed finale moment that nevertheless just about works.
Unfortunately, Sharon Stone is distractingly miscast as Lendina, her second misfire in a villain role, that has her chewing the scenery mostly for the chewing’s sake. She’s more distraction than Damoclesian menace, and exists mainly just to create a source of out-of-town cannon fodder that gives our heroes the necessary time to Home Alone the Hook-a-Duck stall.
Nobody 2 may not have the fresh surprise of its predecessor, but when the fists and bullets fly it delivers the same blend of absurd ultraviolence and bruising humour that made the first outing such a delight. Odenkirk remains the franchise’s not so secret weapon, and as long as he’s willing to keep taking the punches, Hutch Mansell will always be worth following into the fight.
