Simply by Derek Kolstad being the writer and co-producer on Nobody, as he was for all of the John Wick movies, it doesn't just invite yet encourage comparison. But so does seeing Bob Odenkirk delivering his Everyman-but-Just-you-Wait type of performance that he brought to Jimmy on Better Call Saul (as great as he was on Breaking Bad, BCS is its own beast where he has absolutely come into his own as one of the most significant actors of his age, and a deeper character too). Hutch isn't Jimmy, however, and there isn't quite as much depth for him to mine.
On the other hand, I wouldn't *want* this to be too deep, either. How could it, unless it went further into the Cronenberg/Josh Olsen History of Violence pool? This is Kolstad doing a genre Salt-Shaker (hey, maybe I should make that a new term to use more often, couldn't hurt) of a bit of John Wick, but also HoV and just any given number of "I'm Trying to be Cool but OK Watch Out Now: *BOOM* action flicks that were popularized through Bronson and the Death Wishes. Come to think of it, if anything this is closer to what I would have wanted to see in those movies - at least in this first half.
Once it's revealed who Hustch really is, and that the Just-Explained-Enough background with his dad (oh Christopher Lloyd I missed you having a real character to play, no more Oogieloves for you, pal) and uh brother (the Rza, in it just enough) makes more sense, then the movie does have some cards to play we've seen before. It took a little while, but by 2021 I think we can now safely say Russian Mob Very Very Evil Kill Machines is... done, and overdone, albeit with a touch of karaoke I guess this time (?)
But it can't be stressed enough that the action in this is choreographed on that same high standard level as the Wick movies, which means more often than not - at the least with the bus fight, and a few other moments - people actually look like they get *hurt* and it is refreshing that it keeps to being fun while so stylized, and that Odenkirk elevates it. We just don't get action stars like him, and as I left the theater on the drive home I pondered if sort of Black Ops Deep Cover "Nobody" bad-ass fighters and killers in the government agencies look more like him than a Keanu Reeves or Denzel Washington.
And while the movie has a good sense of humor about it for the most part (the part that isn't most reminds me why I had issues with Hardcore Henry, but that's minor things like nitpicks with music cues and stuff), Odenkirk isn't playing it as a joke - again, this is the same commitment to Jimmy throughout, and so it isn't that he has to rise to the level of a Connie Nielsen or Lloyd, on the contrary they got to keep up with him. In other words, Nobody is a well-spun, fun, "mindless" piece of entertainment that I can't wait for my mother to see months from now (she's even more into BCS than I am, which is a whole other conversation).
On the other hand, I wouldn't *want* this to be too deep, either. How could it, unless it went further into the Cronenberg/Josh Olsen History of Violence pool? This is Kolstad doing a genre Salt-Shaker (hey, maybe I should make that a new term to use more often, couldn't hurt) of a bit of John Wick, but also HoV and just any given number of "I'm Trying to be Cool but OK Watch Out Now: *BOOM* action flicks that were popularized through Bronson and the Death Wishes. Come to think of it, if anything this is closer to what I would have wanted to see in those movies - at least in this first half.
Once it's revealed who Hustch really is, and that the Just-Explained-Enough background with his dad (oh Christopher Lloyd I missed you having a real character to play, no more Oogieloves for you, pal) and uh brother (the Rza, in it just enough) makes more sense, then the movie does have some cards to play we've seen before. It took a little while, but by 2021 I think we can now safely say Russian Mob Very Very Evil Kill Machines is... done, and overdone, albeit with a touch of karaoke I guess this time (?)
But it can't be stressed enough that the action in this is choreographed on that same high standard level as the Wick movies, which means more often than not - at the least with the bus fight, and a few other moments - people actually look like they get *hurt* and it is refreshing that it keeps to being fun while so stylized, and that Odenkirk elevates it. We just don't get action stars like him, and as I left the theater on the drive home I pondered if sort of Black Ops Deep Cover "Nobody" bad-ass fighters and killers in the government agencies look more like him than a Keanu Reeves or Denzel Washington.
And while the movie has a good sense of humor about it for the most part (the part that isn't most reminds me why I had issues with Hardcore Henry, but that's minor things like nitpicks with music cues and stuff), Odenkirk isn't playing it as a joke - again, this is the same commitment to Jimmy throughout, and so it isn't that he has to rise to the level of a Connie Nielsen or Lloyd, on the contrary they got to keep up with him. In other words, Nobody is a well-spun, fun, "mindless" piece of entertainment that I can't wait for my mother to see months from now (she's even more into BCS than I am, which is a whole other conversation).