Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, 2026.
Written and Directed by BenDavid Grabinski.
Starring Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Stephen Root, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire, Ella Ballentine, Ellen Wong, and Arturo Castro.
SYNOPSIS:
Two friends navigate the dangerous world of organized crime, testing their loyalty and survival skills as they get deeper into the criminal underworld.
An action comedy fusion of mobsters and time travel, writer/director BenDavid Grabinski’s Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (that might seem like a mouthful of characters and relations to keep straight, but rest assured, it is simple) is sometimes both too broad in its satirical sendup of the former world and the emotionality it intends to elicit through the themes spun from the latter, mostly salvaged by some terrifically dynamic fight choreography and one funny supporting performance from Jimmy Tatro that will possibly leave some down for a spin off or prequel in the world of incompetent gangsters (one of them is quite literally named Dumbass Tony, and that’s far from the most amusingly ridiculous of them).
Speaking of Jimmy Tatro, here he plays Jimmy Boy, the doofus mobster son of Keith David’s ringleader, Sosa (don’t ask how that works out biologically), newly released from a lengthy prison sentence and being celebrated with a decadent bash spanning multiple after-parties. Across the long night, Sosa has a plan to whack the rat who turned him in, which brings the story to its actual protagonists, the titular Mike (James Marsden), dual Nicks (Vince Vaughn), and Alice (Eiza González), and a plot involving time travel (created by the nerdy Symon, played by Ben Schwartz, with ties to the gang) revealing that the above assumption is wrong and that they likely only have one night to set the record straight and keep Mike alive.
Nick is in a loveless relationship with Alice, who has taken it upon herself to have an affair with Mike (which seems to have been going on for some time). Presuming that Nick is going to one of the after parties for some adultery of his own, Mike and Alice decide to meet up in a hotel room, but not before his partner unexpectedly shows up beforehand to coax him into one last job, mysteriously knowing that he is planning on stepping away and living a normal life. That’s because this Nick is from the future where Mike dies tonight, something he doesn’t want to alarm his friend by telling him outright without concrete proof of time travel. That comes when Nick convinces Mike to “chloroform” whoever answers the door at the former’s home, which naturally turns out to be Present Nick, setting off a chain reaction of chases and chaos.
Aside from some gaps in logic (Nick insists Mike be the one to do this, even though the sight of another Nick is going to induce a shock that will cause the plan to go awry, when the future body showing up at the home of the present day one might have made for confusion that works in their favor), this is an admittedly playful premise that works when the filmmaker is using it to flex Looney Tunes brawls that smartly are reminiscent of professional wrestling as well in how they dynamically introduce weapons or some other factor into the environment, without ever forgetting it’s there. There is impressive fluidity and flow to these fights, determined never to end until they get the most out of a location or its participants (a convenience store skirmish, in particular, fittingly results in destruction). By the time firearms are introduced into the equation at the climax, the action still feels imaginative and fresh, aware of when to shake up the formula.
What is a mixed bag here is the comedy, with the filmmaker sometimes leaning on pop culture discussions as a crutch to mask thin characterization. Watching Mike and the Nicks babbling about how their situation relates to Gilmore Girls feels random. Other gags, such as the convenience store clerk sporting a shirt that says “Cronenberg for president,” come across as a filmmaker trying to impress with his taste in entertainment.
Even the jabs at mobster culture, such as the wacky nicknames, aren’t exactly original, even if they are still occasionally funny here. It also helps that Jimmy Tatro can sell the absurdity of that mobster scene with his dopey personality. There is also a reliance on licensed music to play up how cool this is or to force the audience to feel something, when, as mentioned, there isn’t much characterization here, and the themes of regret and mistakes don’t feel nearly as profound as BenDavid Grabinski believes.
Yet for all that clunky comedy, there is unquestionable inventiveness and a spirited sense of fun to Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, a mashup of gangster goons and time-traveling antics that, once again, results in several stylish action sequences. The story doesn’t always go down the most compelling road (one sudden burst of violence is negated through a revelation involving more cringeworthy humor that once again serves to remind us that this is a filmmaker who loves the magic of moviemaking), but it does come together nicely with two towering Vince Vaughns kicking ass, James Marsden pulling off some gun-fu, and Eizz Gonzalez providing the brains to the operation.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
