With all action movies comes the distinctive style that each one is given, along with the mass appeal of their main stars anchoring the story. These two elements are essential to the success of both an action flick, or an action movie franchise as a whole. An example of both working together so effectively is the John Wick trilogy with the films kinetic action working well with the charismatic presence of its main character in the lead. Another example is 2008's Taken with Liam Neeson solidifying himself as being one of the most bankable action stars working today. With the genres latest installment Nobody, the filmmakers place Better Call Saul's Bob Odenkirk in the main role while giving the story the same kind of fast-paced and high level action vibe as the John Wick series. Though it can be said that the plot for Nobody isn't anything groundbreaking to write home about and often finds itself treading on familiar territory in regards to its stories formulaic structure, its filmmakers still manage to make its plot feel fresh and exciting with Odenkirk proving to be an ideal choice in the main role of playing a middle-aged action hero in the same vein as Neeson. While Nobody presents nothing new in the action genre, it successfully combines all of the elements that have proven to work thus far and craft an enjoyable action experience that's explosive, funny, and ultimately shows that there's still surprises that can be pulled within its genre.
The plot for Nobody centers around a bystander (Bob Odenkirk) intervening to help a young woman being harassed by a group of drunkenly violent men with him becoming the target of a vengeful drug lord. When watching Nobody, the films that come to mind when looking at its storyline are Charles Bronson's Death Wish mixed with John Wick. Although the film doesn't break any new ground in terms of innovativeness, it delivers enough of a visceral impact with its violence and action to largely entertain and thrill audiences while proving that Bob Odenkirk has what it takes to be an action star. Odenkirk is compelling to watch and channels Liam Neeson's style of ass-kicking in terms of both outsmarting and battling his opponents. Nobody is clever, funny, brilliant, and fast-paced with not just telling its story, but throwing explosive action at the audience that feels undeniably exciting. Despite the films formula being overly done as well as its style of filming action scenes, Nobody still manages to make its concept feel fresh while giving audiences a main character whose smart, sympathetic, vulnerable, and badass in how he defeats his opponents and ultimately wins. Those looking for something exciting to watch will find themselves genuinely surprised to discover how well Nobody works as being popcorn entertainment, that's engaging and wonderfully executed. While it won't transcend the genre nor inspire any new trends, the end results works as being a rollicking good time with both guns and fireworks blazing.
Along with the films stylishly filmed action sequences, the acting by its main cast standout with Bob Odenkirk totally shocking audiences with his electrifying and charismatic performance. Whereas the performances from the supporting cast are reliably noteworthy, it's ultimately Odenkirk's that holds the film together and makes the experience feel fun as well as fresh. Odenkirk is both fantastic and sympathetic in his role as Hutch "Nobody" Mansell, a former government assassin for the CIA. Odenkirk is undeniably convincing in playing the part of an ex-agent who willingly left the agency behind in order to be a boring husband and family man, yet later realizes that he can't escape his past as being an assassin. Odenkirk does an impressive job of selling his role along with showing audiences that his character is putting up a facade in pretending to be happy at living a single life when in actuality he misses the thrill of being an agent, and is secretly thirsting for action. The success of the film was always going to hinge on the strength of its main lead and here, Odenkirk proves to be more than capable of switching from being the straight family guy part to being a certified badass. The rest of the cast turns in solid work with Connie Nielsen being likable as Hutch's successful and beautiful wife Rebecca Mansell. Nielsen is believable as the faithful wife who may be aware of her husband's secrets, yet chooses to be complicit in keeping his past from their children. Both Odenkirk and Nielsen are appealing as the films married couple who appear at first to be going through the motions of a stale marriage before Odenkirk begins to spice things up after his first taste of action in a long time with the bus incident. Nielsen's performance as Odenkirk's wife is refreshing in the sense that she doesn't play the stereotypical wife whose up in arms over her husband's secretive past, but goes with it creating suspicion with the audience that she knows all about her husband's past as a spy. Aleksei Serebryakov proves effective as the films antagonist Yulian Kuznetsov, the Russian Mob boss who ends up targeting Hutch and his family after his brother is fatally wounded in a battle with the latter on the bus earlier in the film. Though Aleksei's character often feels like a generic villain in the more recent action films such as John Wick and Taken, Serebryakov makes his character interesting as he's allowed to with the amount of depth and screentime given to him. Other surprisingly admirable performances include RZA as Hutch's half-brother Harry, Christopher Lloyd in a scene-stealing performance as Hutch's father David Mansell, Gage Munroe as Hutch's teenage son Blake, Paisley Cadorath as Hutch's daughter Sammy, and Michael Ironside as Hutch's father-in-law and boss Eddie. As far as performances go, the cast for Nobody makes the most of their roles with everyone giving performances that are not only effective, but add to the films energy. One can absolutely see upon watching the film that the cast is having a blast with this story, making it even more thrilling to watch. Despite the efforts of the supporting cast, this is Bob Odenkirk's vehicle with him completely seizing the opportunity to show audiences that he can be a legitimate action star whose charismatic, likable, and sympathetic.
Along with the films strong acting, the directing put forth by Llya Naishuller serves as being well-crafted with a style that feels similar to that of a Guy Ritchie film. The action scenes are filmed in a similar fashion to John Wick including long-takes of action sequences mixed with quick cuts and excessive amounts of gore. The violence is presented in a form that makes it appear more extreme and intense as the film progresses with the deaths of the baddies becoming more over-the-top and gruesome. Naishuller brings the goods in regards to showcasing the different forms of action in the film with the violence largely consisting of traditional shootouts, stabbings, fist-fights, explosions, and an endless display of guns. The films cinematography is elegant in its glorifying of the films key action scenes involving bullets flying and buildings exploding. The pacing is perfect with how it keeps both the story and action moving with the film never feeling overlong nor moving too slow for it's 92 minute running time. The films soundtrack is effective in adding to both the excitement and thrills of the story with much of the music consisting of rock and roll hits and Americana classics. As far as the films directing goes, Llya Naishuller does an admirable job of creating a mood that feels fresh and borderline satirical in the sense that the film appears to be poking fun at itself while unfolding. Nobody appears as being a film that's aware of the fact that its absurd and embraces it rather than trying to hide it. The story knows that its over-the-top and Naishuller seizes every opportunity to exploit that aspect of the film while steadily building up the action to the point where the scenarios feel silly and outrageous but in the best way. Naishuller doesn't hesitate in giving the film its appropriate tone, and gives the story a macho type feel that pays homage to the classic action film of the 1980's. For those who enjoy fast-paced action with heavy doses of both masculinity and adrenaline, Nobody is aimed specifically for them with Naishuller designing the film to appear as such with an almost satirical feel to it.
Written by Derek Kolstad, the script for Nobody carries a formula that feels very similar to that of John Wick with sprinkles of Charles Bronson's Death Wish added to the mix. The film takes the whole suburban middle-aged husband/father turned vengeful concept, and puts a new spin on it while utilizing many of the same generic character plot points from other action movies with similar storylines. Nobody's plot covers themes pertaining to hiding one's true nature from friends and family, organized crime, covert operations, protecting one's family, and the use of violence with the films ultimate message being one that says not to judge a person by their appearance alone. The character of Hutch is written as being frustrated, as well as pushed to the brink after his home is broken into. He's later shown to be looking for an outlet to unleash his rage for what occurred with him taking it out on the group of young guys drunk driving and terrorizing a young female passenger on a bus. Though the scene is reminiscent of the Subway sequence in Jodie Fosters The Brave One with a group of young men terrorizing the passengers on a New York Subway train, prompting Fosters character to take action by shooting the young men, Nobody takes a similar approach with that scene and manages to do its own thing while being creative. Although much of Nobody's plot has been lifted from other films, the script finds ways to add new twists and turns to familiar plot points. The character of Hutch and his family despite appearing as being a traditional surburban family, are likable and sympathetic to the audience with Odenkirk's character being shown to slowly ease back into his role of being a former CIA agent with his fighting skills appearing rusty at first, but become more progressively advanced with the more action Hutch's character becomes exposed to. In addition to his character becoming less bored of his everyday routine and begging for more violence, he also becomes a better husband and father as his character realizes the lack of spark that's been absent in his marriage recently, along with him atoning for the fact that he told his son to not fight back against the burglars, prompting him to get attacked in return. The main villains shown in the film come across as being stereotypical Russian baddies with minimal enough development to make them effective in allowing the audience to despise their characters, while also prompting them to hope that they're killed off in a creative fashion by Odenkirk's character. The scripts most thrilling moments are the ones in which the audience see the transformation with Hutch's character in which he goes from being an emasculated husband/father who watched his home get invaded to him becoming a vengeful and thirst for action type figure, that he once was in his days as a CIA agent. It's the steady progression of his character as well as the building up of the films insane action that make Nobody a desirable action movie experience.
Despite the fact that Nobody recycles the same formula and overall story-structure from other revenge films both past and present, it still finds ways to be surprising while demonstrating a healthy dose of creativity and sheer brilliance behind the execution of its story. It's success in doing so wouldn't be possible without the combined talent and efforts of director Derek Kolstad and Bob Odenkirk's spot-on performance. The film is clever in how it gives the impression that it aspires to be ridiculous without doing so completely. It gives audiences constant winks in regards to its true intentions while poking fun at concepts such as toxic masculinity. The film reinforces these notions with key elements in its plot regarding the main character driving a classic sports car along with him having a collection of guns. The film unabashedly embraces these cliched macho elements that have dominated past action films, and finds new ways to make them feel both surprising and fresh to the story rather than tired and played out. While it can be said that Nobody treads familiar territory and often leans too close to John Wick for comfort, it still manages to pack a huge punch with audiences in providing it's own form of entertainment that compliments the better works within its genre. Although it may not be considered a groundbreaking piece of storytelling, there's much that Nobody offers audiences that's engaging and wonderfully fun to watch with Bob Odenkirk delivering a surprise turn with his performance. Anyone who enjoys a solid action flick will find Nobody to be a thoroughly enjoyable and richly satisfying experience as it successfully manages to balance both style and substance. With the film achieving that so eloquently, there's nothing else that audiences could really ask for out of the experience.
Final Verdict: To action fans as well as those who enjoy Bob Odenkirk as an actor, Nobody is a must see action flick that bears the style of John Wick and presents audiences with a new form of action hero while utilizing the best elements of the genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment