"Nobody" has the sense of being an intentionally unintentionally funny film. The plot concerns how when criminals invade the home of a "nobody", hurting his family and making him look weak in the eyes of his loved ones, they have messed with the wrong man. A copious number of additional criminals will come to the same realisation. It's as if the film was written by a teenage boy, hence the lack of realism.
Bob Odenkirk plays the "nobody" of the title, a man called Hutch Mansell. I know Odenkirk from the quality drama series "Breaking bad", although his character in that has gotten a spin-off series (Better call Saul) which I haven't seen. I was going to say that the poster for "Nobody" reminded me of the poster for "Kindergarten cop" but I can't seem to find such an image online. Maybe Odenkirk also reminded me of Tom Arnold, as far as his appearance goes in that poster. Anyway, when you see Hutch doing pull-ups waiting for a bus, you realise that there may be more to this man with a seemingly humdrum life working for...is it Universal Exports? I dunno, so boring.
Anyway, after his home is invaded by robbers, things quickly escalate and Hutch will soon have to be dealing with Boss Level criminals. This is part of this genre's arc...a mild-mannered man turns into a lion, redeeming himself in the eyes of his family. This is quite a violent film but I didn't find it as odious as the implied violence of "Law abiding citizen" Sometimes the violence is played for laughs though.
The main reason I'm not scoring this film very highly is its lack of realism and the perfunctory humour and manipulation of the audience's emotions. Hutch takes a lot of punishment in this film, short of being crucified in order to fuel this homicidal fantasy, so that he can be resurrected as a God of Vengeance. That being said, it doesn't quite go to The Black Knight territory on that front though.
Back to the humour in this film, I was going to call it "dry" but the Oxford online dictionary defines that as "(of a joke or sense of humour) subtle and expressed in a matter-of-fact way", so, if you remove "subtle" from the definition, you pretty much have it. The humour and violence may please teenage boys but that's a very low bar. If you watched the sitcom Happy Days as a child, did you find The Fonz really cool? When watching it as an adult, are you staggered at how little The Fonz had to do to seem cool? Just me? Anyway, "Nobody", like The Fonz, is minimalist when it comes to the humour and it is very tired in any case. For instance, there's a variation on 'the family that slays together stays together'. Some might find this 1970's level cop-show humour funny but I think it stopped being funny...back in the 1970's. A comparable film as far as the humour goes can be found in the marginally funnier "Freaky". I have in mind the scene where Vince Vaughn's character is in the back seat with a teenage boy (see my review of that film).
It would be true to say that if I found myself in Hutch's position, it would have only taken a look by me to intimidate all those nasty criminals. Of course, that wouldn't make for a very exciting 2 minute film. This film is 92 minutes long. I shouldn't have had those couple of coffees before seeing this film. Maybe when I went to the loo a few times during the 'quiet' moments of this film, I missed some drama which grounded the story more.
It seems like I'm a sucker for these kinds of films. I found the very recent "Boss level" a much more entertaining violent male fantasy with a sense of humour. Its star, Frank Grillo, really puts Odenkirk's pull-ups to shame just looking at his physique. As a kid, I saw the early Death Wish films. One of these days I should revisit some of those. That was a violent male fantasy played straight. Maybe it did it better too.
Edit: After seeing this film, I saw an online article in Variety by Rebecca Rubin ("Bob Odenkirk knows he's not your typical action star. Will 'Nobody' change that?") which does give an interesting insight into the origin of this film, from Odenkirk's personal experience.
Bob Odenkirk plays the "nobody" of the title, a man called Hutch Mansell. I know Odenkirk from the quality drama series "Breaking bad", although his character in that has gotten a spin-off series (Better call Saul) which I haven't seen. I was going to say that the poster for "Nobody" reminded me of the poster for "Kindergarten cop" but I can't seem to find such an image online. Maybe Odenkirk also reminded me of Tom Arnold, as far as his appearance goes in that poster. Anyway, when you see Hutch doing pull-ups waiting for a bus, you realise that there may be more to this man with a seemingly humdrum life working for...is it Universal Exports? I dunno, so boring.
Anyway, after his home is invaded by robbers, things quickly escalate and Hutch will soon have to be dealing with Boss Level criminals. This is part of this genre's arc...a mild-mannered man turns into a lion, redeeming himself in the eyes of his family. This is quite a violent film but I didn't find it as odious as the implied violence of "Law abiding citizen" Sometimes the violence is played for laughs though.
The main reason I'm not scoring this film very highly is its lack of realism and the perfunctory humour and manipulation of the audience's emotions. Hutch takes a lot of punishment in this film, short of being crucified in order to fuel this homicidal fantasy, so that he can be resurrected as a God of Vengeance. That being said, it doesn't quite go to The Black Knight territory on that front though.
Back to the humour in this film, I was going to call it "dry" but the Oxford online dictionary defines that as "(of a joke or sense of humour) subtle and expressed in a matter-of-fact way", so, if you remove "subtle" from the definition, you pretty much have it. The humour and violence may please teenage boys but that's a very low bar. If you watched the sitcom Happy Days as a child, did you find The Fonz really cool? When watching it as an adult, are you staggered at how little The Fonz had to do to seem cool? Just me? Anyway, "Nobody", like The Fonz, is minimalist when it comes to the humour and it is very tired in any case. For instance, there's a variation on 'the family that slays together stays together'. Some might find this 1970's level cop-show humour funny but I think it stopped being funny...back in the 1970's. A comparable film as far as the humour goes can be found in the marginally funnier "Freaky". I have in mind the scene where Vince Vaughn's character is in the back seat with a teenage boy (see my review of that film).
It would be true to say that if I found myself in Hutch's position, it would have only taken a look by me to intimidate all those nasty criminals. Of course, that wouldn't make for a very exciting 2 minute film. This film is 92 minutes long. I shouldn't have had those couple of coffees before seeing this film. Maybe when I went to the loo a few times during the 'quiet' moments of this film, I missed some drama which grounded the story more.
It seems like I'm a sucker for these kinds of films. I found the very recent "Boss level" a much more entertaining violent male fantasy with a sense of humour. Its star, Frank Grillo, really puts Odenkirk's pull-ups to shame just looking at his physique. As a kid, I saw the early Death Wish films. One of these days I should revisit some of those. That was a violent male fantasy played straight. Maybe it did it better too.
Edit: After seeing this film, I saw an online article in Variety by Rebecca Rubin ("Bob Odenkirk knows he's not your typical action star. Will 'Nobody' change that?") which does give an interesting insight into the origin of this film, from Odenkirk's personal experience.