Nobody Film Review

So my first exposure to Bob Odenkirk was “Breaking Bad.” He was the sneaky lawyer who handled things for less than honorable individuals. You know like those running illegal million dollar meth empires. We were later revisited by Mr Odenkirk in a spinoff series, “Better Call Saul” where we get to see his journey a bit more closely.

After having seen him in this role, I was curious how he’d do in a more serious, tough guy role. “Nobody” trailers felt kind of like an equalizer type film. Mysterious guy, full of secrets, appears soft and mellow, but deep down inside, he’s a killer. My wife and I were both immediately interested in this film. In fact, I actually paid $20 to rent this from Prime because I didn’t want to wait to see it.

Overall, I’d say the film was entertaining. It delivered in regards to the overall expectation. If you enjoyed the way they cut Better Call Saul, you’ll enjoy the way they cut this one. There were a lot of scenes that were very reminiscent of the style seen on Better Call Saul.

I do wish that they would have taken a bit more time to tell us about what Hutch Mansell actually did, maybe put a scene or two that shows more about his backstory. Who was his brother and what was his deal? What about his dad? Why were he and his wife at odds? I mean, it was all sort of implied, but it would have been nice to get some more on that aspect.

When the movie starts, his family is victim to a home invasion, he holds back and doesn’t want to hurt the thieves. His son jumps in and gets punched because Hutch didn’t take action. He lets them go, then his kid’s pissed at him, and everyone is making fun of him for not doing what needed to be done. Until his daughter asks for her kitty cat bracelet, which he thinks they took. So he goes through the trouble of tracking them down for the kitty cat bracelet, and then that whole story thread disappears. I mean, that’s it, that whole arc is just gone. He later finds the bracelet at home.

We then jump into the typical young Russian fight scene, this one on a bus, and quite similar to a John Wick scene. He barely messed those guys up, then the big brother who happens to be a big Russian mob boss finds out, and you know how that goes. Same story line. Get him, bring him back alive and so on.

There was one scene where a veteran sees one of his tattoos, recognizes it, freaks out and immediately makes himself scarce. Okay, why not tell us what the tattoos mean? This all ties to what I said earlier about a bit of back story. There was a movie with The Rock who comes out of prison, and he’s confronted by some huge Samoan dude who also recognized his tattoos and dips in fear. But as he runs away he says, “This man is a ghost man, I’m out of here.” At least he gives us something, not much, but something.

Finally, they didn’t make Odenkirk look like he can fight y’all. He was nearly getting tooled by those kids on the bus and I expected him to look better in the fight scenes. This fight was too close and didn’t make him look at tough as it should have. They could have choreographed things a bit better to make him look more badass.

Despite my criticisms, I did pay the $20 and I did enjoy the film. The story has some good potential and it is entertaining. As an Odenkirk fan, and a fan of Better Call Saul, this film felt familiar but different. I just think that they could have done so much more with it. I’d still recommend watching it, I think it is a good film overall. Check out Nobody in theaters or order it on Prime Video. If you watch it, or have seen it, please let us know your thoughts. Do you agree with this review?

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