In today’s landscape of assassin movies as the big kids on the block of action films, “Nobody” stands in stark contrast to its own title. With a simultaneously committed and soft-spoken leading man performance by Bob Odenkirk, an abundance of black comedy, and marvelously visceral action scenes, the “John Wick with a 9 to 5” that is “Nobody” is tons of bat swinging, guns-blazing, show-tune singing fun!
Trailer
Cast
Bob Odenkirk portrays the movie’s protagonist Hutch Mansell, with Connie Nielsen playing his wife, Becca. Christopher Lloyd also portrays Hutch’s father David, with RZA playing his half-brother Harry, while Michael Ironside plays Hutch’s boss and father-in-law Eddie Williams.
The villainous Russian mob boss Yulian Kuznetsov is played by Aleksei Serebryakov, with Gage Munroe and Paisley Cadorath playing Hutch’s son and daughter, Blake and Sammy respectively.
Plot
Hutch Mansell lives an unremarkable life in the suburbs, heading off to his 9 to 5 office job every day to support his family, but his commute is interrupted by an unexpected break-in one morning.
Though Hutch at first tries to intervene, he decides against violence and lets the burglars go, leaving his son Blake, resentful.
The frustrated Hutch later manages to track the burglars down, only to spare them once more when he sees they’re a poor couple trying to support a new baby.
Hutch finally gets to release his anger when a gang boards a bus, leaving them all bruised and bloodied, not realizing that one of them is the brother of Russian crime boss, Yulian Kuznetsov.
By the same token, as Yulian comes for payback on his brother’s attack, he doesn’t know that Hutch is a former government “auditor” and a very deadly opponent himself.
Action
Far more so than its assassin movie contemporaries “John Wick” and “Atomic Blonde”, “Nobody” is as much a black comedy as it is an action movie.
From Family Man to Action Beast
The movie pulls a frankly surprising amount of great jokes from the day-to-day grind of Hutch’s life as a family man juxtaposed against the killing machine that he’s hidden from the world, situating that contrast perfectly in every action scene.
Whenever Hutch is doing his thing, the soundtrack switches to tonal opposite songs like Steve Lawrence’s “I’ve Gotta Be Me” or Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” in glorious, ironic fashion. True to its title, Hutch leads what seems to be an unremarkable life, a man with a nice house, a decent job, a happy family with an unassuming physical build, and personality.
Dishing Out Heavy Doses of Common Sense…
As we learn over the course of the movie, the idea of being “nobody” living in the suburbs is the dream Hutch has long desired, but is sadly not to be when he takes up the sword against his enemies once more.
“Nobody” naturally pulls a little humor from what Hutch wants versus what his enemies will allow him to have, two of the biggest laughs in the movie erupting right out of Hutch passing on his story to his beaten-up adversaries.
All Hell Lets Loose in the Bus Bash
If it’s the assassin movie blend of bullets and fisticuffs you’re after, you’ll get your money’s worth a-plenty with “Nobody”. While the movie takes its time setting the table of Hutch’s domestic tranquility, it explodes into action when Hutch gets rolling in the bus fight, a trainwreck of a battle that both he and the audience metaphorically and physically limp away from (watch out for Daniel Bernhardt and Alain Moussi here, too!)
Deathtraps Give “Rambo: Last Blood” a Run for its Money!
From that point on, Hutch’s pacifism seen in the opening is a distant memory. The inconspicuous husband and father standing his ground against Yulian’s attempt at retribution on his family in true Babe Ruth, bat-wielding fashion, and hitting Yulian where it hurts in his stashed-away money pit.
With the always entertaining Christopher Lloyd in the role of Hutch’s elderly father, David hops off the bench, and his half-brother Harry off the radio, to lend him a hand too, with Hutch converting his office into a maze of deathtraps to give John Rambo’s underground slaughterhouse in “Rambo: Last Blood” a run for its money.
Summary
With a sharp, acerbic sense of humor and action scenes that wow and wince in equal measure, “Nobody” is an assassin movie blast.
Taking up action hero chops for the first time, Bob Odenkirk also absolutely crushes it as Hutch.
With a debut into the assassin movie world like this, there’s zero excuse for “Nobody 2” not to be on the soon horizon, so stay tuned!
Favourite Quotes
- “I hope they like hospital food.” – Hutch (preparing to take on the gang in the bus fight.)
- “Everybody dies, some sooner than others.” – Hutch
- “I’m Nobody” – Hutch (while being interrogated by police.)
Trivia
- “Nobody” was originally slated to be released on August 14th, 2020, but was delayed to February 26th 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its release date then shifted a few more times before finally settling on March 26th, 2021.
- The movie was born out of an idea of Bob Odenkirk, who once dealt with a home break-in himself and managed to trap the burglars in his basement. Odenkirk was dissatisfied with the action taken by the authorities, and thought of how he would have handled the situation if he “was a badass”.
- Bob Odenkirk trained for two years to get in shape for the movie, and also co-produced the film.
- Martial-arts acting talent, Daniel Bernhardt trained Bob for the movie, and also served as co-fight coordinator.
