Nobody 2, 2025.
Directed by Timo Tjahjanto.
Starring Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, John Ortiz, RZA, Sharon Stone, Colin Salmon, Colin Hanks, Gage Munroe, and Paisley Cadorath.
SYNOPSIS:
A former assassin-turned-suburban-family-man takes his family on a holiday to get away from his violent ways, but circumstances won’t let him rest.
2021s Nobody was something of a sleeper hit, bouncing off the back of the John Wick movies with some of the same crew involved, and giving middle-aged dads everywhere a bit of hope as all-round-nice-guy Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) had enough of being taken for granted by his family, neighbours and colleagues, and his secret former life as a special ops assassin came racing back to the surface, resulting in him burning $30 million dollars of a Russian gangster’s money.
And so now we have the inevitable follow-up where, in true sequel tradition, things get ramped up and are even more violent and action-packed than before. We catch up with Hutch, who is paying back the Russian money by doing covert missions for ‘The Barber’ (Colin Salmon), but eliminating dozens of bad guys when you’re a middle-aged man takes its toll, and with his marriage to wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) and relationship with teenage son Brady (Gage Munroe) feeling the strain of him not being there when he is needed, Hutch decides to take the family – including young daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) and grandfather David (Christopher Lloyd) – on vacation to a small-town theme park to unwind. However, trouble is never far away and once Hutch loses his cool with the park’s security, a chain of events puts him and his family in the sights of corrupt Sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks) and local crime boss Lendina (Sharon Stone).
Most franchises take until the third movie until they nail down the formula, as part two’s nearly always try something different before reverting to what made the original so popular for the next movie, but Nobody 2 dispenses with any notions of experimenting and gets right down to the action, which is a little bloodier and – and it sounds a bit silly to say it for a movie that revels in violence – a bit more mean-spirited than before. Yes, shooting nameless bad guys from a distance in a geyser of blood squibs is fun, but slamming a man’s head into a bench saw feels a tad more personal. To be fair, the camera does cut away from actually seeing his head get split open, but it still adds a modicum of grindhouse brutality to an otherwise slick studio action thriller.
The bulk of the original cast return but having Christopher Lloyd and not using him for anything other than the odd quip feels like a waste, especially when he was such a highlight of the first movie. John Ortiz shows up as the owner of the theme park and adds some extra energy, and Sharon Stone clearly revels in playing Lendina, the ruthless crime boss who wipes out whole bloodlines if she gets ripped off, but Colin Hanks looks a little bewildered playing the corrupt sheriff in Lendina’s pocket. He talks tough, but is never really convincing, especially as he doesn’t get to kill anyone, which might have lent some weight to his character.
But overall, Nobody 2 carries on Hutch Mansell’s story without mixing up the formula too much. The violence is superbly choreographed and shot in a similar way, albeit it with a few more slow-motion pieces for intensity, and those set pieces do look excellent in 4K UHD, with the slow-motion showing off a lot of detail and the quick edits crisp and clean. When combined with the punchy Dolby Atmos track the action gets really elevated, so if you have the setup then this is the format to watch it on.
We also get a few more character beats we didn’t have before – who knew that Becca was such a good shot in the fun fair shooting range? Maybe that will come in handy at some point – but as the plot is paper thin and basically does the first movie again nothing is expanded upon to any great degree. Overall, though, if you liked Nobody then you’ll like Nobody 2, but probably not quite as much.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
