Bullet Points: Nobody (2021)

Before anyone watched the trailer for Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody, I doubt any of us had Bob Odenkirk as an action stud on our yearly bingo cards. Nobody is set to be released in theatres on March 26^th, and I had an early look to see if we should Better Call Bob for all our action needs.

• The Plot: You might read taglines such as John Wick for cat lovers or move over John Wick there is a new animal loving badass in town, but Nobody is the story of Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk), a mild-mannered vanilla guy who lives a boring live with his wife and two kids. He has the same mundane routine every day. Hutch is the poster child for watching your life pass right by you. After stopping a home invasion, something in Hutch slowly starts to wake up. It is only after his daughter realizes her kitty cat bracelet is missing, that the beast within Hutch is fully awaken and now Hutch is ready to go to war against the Russian mafia. Nobody also stars Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Llyod, Michael Ironside and RZA. Ilya Naishuller is the director and Derek Kolstad is the screenwriter. In case you did not know, Kolstad also wrote John Wick.

• The Action: How do you make Bob Odenkirk an action star? My biggest concern going into Nobody was how credible Bob would be as an action stud. It is sometimes difficult for the audience to watch someone act in a way they are not used to seeing the performer. I am sure some had doubts with Henry Fonda as a ruthless baddie in Once Upon a Time in the West, Denzel Washington as the bad cop in Training Day and Patrick Swayze as a bank robber in Point Break. You can argue all these performances are some of the most memorable baddies in the history of cinema. At the same time, who remembers Keanu Reeves in The Watcher? Or Sylvester Stallone in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot? Going against the normal, does not guarantee success. With Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch we have a winner. I never thought of Bob as anything but a wisecracking lawyer. Now I cannot think of Bob as anything but an ass kicking action machine. 
• More Action: So why does everything work in Nobody? It is the effort put in to make Bob look so damn good. Look no further than the bus scene. A scene I watched repeatedly. A scene that features Bulletproof Action fan favorite Alain Moussi and one of the most underrated action stars, Daniel Bernhardt. Both are credited as Bus Goons in the film. They are just two of the goons Hutch fights in a scene I could watch on infinite loop for the rest of my days. It is like a good wrestling match. If you have the right performer on one side of the ring, he or she can make anyone look good. Bob Odenkirk benefits from an amazing supporting cast of stunts first actors. Bob will get all the glory, but the real credit goes to every stunt performer that worked on the film. 

• Even More Action: Nobody is a 90-minute action orgasm. To me, it is an entirely different movie than John Wick. The tones of the films do not match up. This does not mean Nobody should not be spoken in the same sentence as John Wick. In fact, I believe the purest action movies of recent memory are The Raid: Redemption, John Wick: Chapter 2 and now we can add Nobody to my list. Watch Nobody the first chance you get. Watch Christopher Lloyd steal the film as Hutch’s dad. Watch RZA snipe a baddie point blank. Watch Bob Odenkirk play with a kitty cat. Just watch Nobody!
• Grade: A+