Shadows on the Wall

Nobody 2

dir Timo Tjahjanto
scr Derek Kolstad, Aaron Rabin
prd David Leitch, Braden Aftergood, Kelly McCormick, Bob Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero
with Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Sharon Stone, John Ortiz, Christopher Lloyd, RZA, Colin Hanks, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath, Colin Salmon, Daniel Bernhardt, David MacInnis
release US/UK 15.Aug.25
25/US Universal 1h29

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While this may be yet another movie about a middle-aged man with secret action skills, it's also a sequel that remembers what made the original so memorable: the hero isn't enjoying this. This helps make everything feel wryly hilarious. So while director Timo Tjahjanto revels in action that's astonishingly violent, the film also celebrates a good person who is unable to remain silent in the face of injustice.

Missing family events, Hutch (Odenkirk) must work long hours to pay back a huge debt to his criminal kingpin boss (Salmon). To reconnect with his wife Becca (Nielsen) and teen kids (Munroe and Cadorath), Hutch books a holiday at a Wisconsin resort he visited as a child, taking his dad (Lloyd) along for old time's sake. But bullies are everywhere, and Hutch can't resist taking them down a peg. This puts him at odds with sheriff Wyatt (Ortiz) and deputy Abel (Hanks). And soon Hutch is on a collision course with ruthless mobster Lendina (Stone).

Much of the action involves amusement park rides, which adds humour to the escalating nastiness. Hutch never seeks trouble, but when it comes he sighs with resignation and refuses to walk away. So every punch looks like it hurts. This time, Becca and the kids get in on the action too, as do Hutch's dad and brother (RZA). And the script cleverly plots the inexorable march of the threat against this family, which is simply trying to enjoy a holiday together.

Once again, the likeably frazzled Odenkirk wins over the audience with Hutch's understated tenacity and rather astonishing ingenuity, as he improvises creative and often jaw-droppingly grisly ways to take out baddies. Meanwhile, he has enjoyably complex connections with his family. Nielsen is particularly strong as a woman whose patience is stretched to the limit. Threaten her family at your peril. Lloyd, RZA and Ortiz offer enjoyable support, Hanks is a terrific loathsome slimeball, and Stone fabulously chomps scenery as a deranged sadist.

Irony and deeper themes remain subtle, as this movie's primary job is to entertain audiences with gleefully gruesome mayhem. Each fight sequence is inventively choreographed to bring out both witty flourishes and groan-inducing brutality. And the way the story riffs on family vacation movies is fiendishly clever, especially as the hapless dad tries to make sure everyone is having a good time while things spiral spectacularly out of control. Which of course offers endless options for further chapters in this family's saga.

themes, language, violence 13.Aug.25

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