Odenkirk stars as Hutch Mantell, a family man whose boring existence is shattered when he and his family become the victim of a home invasion. Mantell is so passive that he stops his son from kicking the crap out of one of the burglars. Mantell’s wife Becca (Connie Nielson) seems to take his passivity as a matter of course while his son actively loathes him. Of course Hutch is hiding a part of himself for the sake of his family, but after stepping into his old personality to retrieve his daughter’s stolen bracelet, Hutch really steps into it after rescuing a girl from five Russian thugs on a bus. The resulting violence leads to Hutch running afoul of a powerful mobster (Alexey Serebryakov). What follows is a fairly entertaining exercise in what could best be described as “John Wick-lite” married to a little bit of “The Equalizer.
Writer Derek Kolstad is in familiar territory here, having creating the enormously entertaining John Wick franchise. He takes a slightly different tack here, attempting to make Hutch more of an everyman than Mr. Wick and he mostly succeeds because of Odenkirk’s performance. He is such an unlikely action hero that there is a weird thrill to seeing this unassuming dude suddenly bust out a convincing can of whoop-ass. This is important because director Iyla Naishuller, while competent, doesn’t showcase the visual flair of John Wick director Chad Stahelski. The action is more thuggishly brutal, if that makes any sense, without the ballet-like smoothness of the John Wick franchise.
One of the neat things about “Nobody” is the supporting cast. It’s nice to see Christopher Lloyd, RZA, Colin Salmon, and especially Michael Ironside in the film, no matter how small the role. The story moves along at a decent clip and of course there’s room for a sequel, even though the ending doesn’t explicitly set one up. Odenkirk absolutely kills it (no pun intended) here in a role that could become one of his signatures should he continue with the series. After watching the film I would love to see Kolstad write a film pairing his two most famous creations together. A John Wick/Hutch Mantell crossover would be something I would pay good money to see. As it stands, “Nobody” is a better than average action flick that is worth any movie fan’s time. 3 1/2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!
“Nobody” is streaming on Amazon Prime Cinema and is playing in local theaters.
