REVIEW:
Here’s a movie that completely went in a different direction than the first film, and suffers greatly as a result. Bob Odekirk’s original movie was a John Wick rip off, for sure, but it wasn’t about a world of hitmen the same way those movies are. It was just about a former assassin who reluctantly gets back in the game. What made his story different than Wicks was that this guy is a family man with two kids. And thankfully the sequel does embrace that element. But it gets the story, characters, and tone all wrong.
The movie is about taking a family road trip to an amusement park, having issues with the locals there, dnd coming up against a mafia boss and her armed assassins. Now the family rise trip idea works. The amusement park setting works. Or at least it would have if the movie fully committed to it, and showed us the family going on some of the rides and exploring the place a little.
Let’s put it this way… At the end of the movie, the heroes rig the park full of traps. It’s a cool idea, although some of the traps are ridiculously dumb (swinging the pirate ship ride down to hit a bunch of guys who are standing in the exact right spot and none of them notices the ship right above them.) But the idea is interesting enough. If only we had experienced a little more with these rides before they were turned into weapons. Like if we had seen the family go in each one first (even just in a quick montage,) and then realized it wasn’t just the family going on them, but Hutch (Odenkirk,) character figuring out how each one could be used as a weapon while his family was enjoying their fun.
I keep thinking back to Beverly Hills Cop 3 with this, (which also take place at an amusement park,) and how Axel Foley toured a ride with a robot and flood, with people on it, only to later use this ride as a weapon. For as much hate as the movie has received over the years, at least it used the amusement park right. At least it gave us that setup, introduced us to some of the amusement park characters, had a scene where a ride malfunctioned and Foley had to save the day… things like that.
Here, in Nobody 2, the park is used as a gimmick more than anything else. But at least it’s nice to have a different setting. What really doesn’t work is the tone. The first movie went hardcore into the action. The stunts and fight scenes looked real. There were no camera tricks and there certainly wasn’t any comedy mixes with the action. In the sequel, it’s very much the opposite. The action scenes are sped up, so that characters move way too fast. And it’s meant to be comedic. To emphasize that point, they play silly music over the scenes.
For the first action scene, inside a giant tent arcade, they play silly carnival and pinball game sounds while bad guys are getting beat up. For the second action scene, on a boat they play the song, “When the Saints Come Marching In.” They completely forget that the first movie wasn’t about comedy. So why did they to it? Why change the tone instead of embracing what worked. The answer is most likely because Odenkirk is getting older and can’t do the stunts as much. With the sped up camera work, he doesn’t really need to.
The last thing that doesn’t work so great are the characters. Now I do like how there’s a number of villains, and how one of them even changes sides. But not a one of them is especially memorable. Sharon Stone plays the lead villain here, and she’s got a dance number that’s just begging for attention to show how weird and quirky and crazy she is. But weird dance moves aren’t enough. Maybe if she were dancing around with body parts of her victims or something, it might have worked, but this is just stupid.
Overall, the movie is pretty bad. I like the setting, and I like that they brought all main characters from the original back, including Christopher Lloyd and the RZA, but the reason for a movie like this to exist is for the action, and this move cheats us on that. On top of that, changing the tone to be more comedic, especially during the action scenes, is a big mistake. What a mess.