Nobody 2 is a fun, if overly familiar, sequel.
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2021's Nobody is the epitome of a dad movie. An R-rated action movie where it turns out this boring middle manager is actually a trained killer who really just needed to flex the old murder muscles again to feel alive and show everyone in his life that he's not a wimp. Which begs the question. How the hell do you make a sequel to that? I always get the why. You have a chance to make more money on a movie that didn't cost much to make last time and if you're Bob Odenkirk you get to be an action star again. And if you're me, you'll give it a shot because putting action director extraordinaire Timo Tjahjanto behind the camera for another 90 minute R-rated romp sounds fun.
The Setup
A few years after the events of the last film, Hutch is in a new, but no less troubling routine. While before he was invisible while being present, now he's invisible in his family's lives...because he's not there. Tired of the nonstop work and hoping to connect with his family, Hutch brings his family to a resort town from his youth. But the good times only last for a moment after Hutch's violent impulses put him and his family in the crosshairs of another criminal enterprise.
I had lot of fun with Nobody 2, while also realizing that it doesn't other a vastly different or expanded experience compared to the first go round.
As such, I'm going to dive into the two primary categories that can/would make a big difference. The story and the action. We'll start with the story.
The Story
Story-wise we're aiming at an inverse of the original movie. While that movie was a mid-life crisis movie about a middle-aged father of two who wanted to recapture his zest for life, and does so by starting a one man war with the Russian mob, this time around Hutch is so busy killing people for some shadowy government agency that he fears key memories and moments are slipping away.
So instead of reverting back to the killer he once was and is again, he decides to dip into another version of nostalgia with a family vacation. Along the way, he's also bringing up concerns that his son is learning all of the wrong lessons from him, which isn't being helped by Hutch's penchant for flying off the handle.
Which is a really weird place for this movie to be, because it seems like it's trying to judge us for all of the R-rated violence we're watching, while also giving us about 7-8 extended bloody action scenes.
I actually think the movie would be infinitely stronger if it featured more of Hutch trying to figure out his own moral code that he wants to impart upon his son. Demonstrating that there's a proper time to fight, since the villain in this case is truly despicable and not just a garden variety criminal, and that lethal violence isn't something to aspire to, it's a last resort.
Either that or we could extend this into a movie long comedic metaphor for accepting people how they are, warts and all. Like "yeah it's really funny that dad flies off the handle and sparks wars with criminal enterprises all the time, but man what a vacation."
Instead it leans really heavily on the formula of the last movie where Hutch has one bad outburst that sets the real wheels of the conflict in motion. That emphasis on formula also applies to the action.
The Action
Timo Tjahjanto is one of my favorite action directors working right now. For those unfamiliar the Indonesian filmmaker is the man behind a number of brutally violent action epics incuding the underseen The Night Comes for Us and last year's Shadow Strays.
And as I expected, Tjahjanto is as good as ever.
The fun with Tjahjanto's action directing is that it feels like it picks up where Gareth Evans and The Raid folks left off, in particular using camera movement to follow the flow of an action beat and often make the audience feel like they're the one doing fighting. So if Bob Odenkirk starts throwing haymakers at dudes in an elevator the camera moves back and forth with Odenkirk's fist so we can follow each blow in an enclosed space and highlight the impact.
He also has a dark sense of humor and really seems to enjoy punctuating his action beats with dark jokes or peppering in humorous asides and reactions halfway through scenes.
From there we can filter in some of Tjahjanto's specialties which include extended action beats with bladed weapons, crunchy hand to hand combat that makes great use of the environment, and an affection for overwhelming slow motion gun battles.
The only problem? It's the movie's main problem which is that it's suffering from callback brain.
Callback Brain
So what is callback brain?
Callback brain is my loose terminology for a sequel that's obsessed with recreating elements from the original movie. The general thinking makes sense. This is what people enjoyed last time, so give them more of it.
Admittedly, this is what sequels kinda are already. Cashing-in on an already effective premise or idea for more money.
However, if you lean too hard onto "what worked last time," the end result is often a movie that lacks it's own distinctive elements or identity.
And despite being a lot of fun Nobody 2 is loaded with callback moments. Giant fight on a vehicle with some goons where Hutch gets roughed up and thrown out? New, funnier location but yeah we did that again. A Home Alone style action beat at the finale. The location is way bigger, but yeah we're doing that again. A whole lot of Hutch lying to his family or keeping them in the dark as he tries to sort out a mess he made. Yup did that again. How about an opening sequence highlighting a frustrating routine for Hutch. Yup did that too.
What stinks is that the new elements are actually the most fun. Colin Hanks as a corrupt sheriff? Fantastic stunt casting and he crushes it. He didn't have anything resmbling a fun henchman before and this is excellent. The action beats that don't callback to earlier scenes...this is what you hire Tjahjanto for, because they're easily the best beats in the whole movie.
There's the bones of great sequel here. One that could've still let Odenkirk and company kick ass, without feeling so samey. I still had fun, but I'm frustrated with the missed opportunity.
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