‘Nobody 2’ Movie Review: A Less-Inspired Throwaway Sequel
Photo from Universal Pictures
From Jeremy Kibler
When audiences weren’t quite back to theaters yet in 2021, Nobody was a like a shot in the arm with an against-type Bob Odenkirk kicking ass and taking names. Lean, brutally violent, and wickedly funny, it was more than just a Mad Libs version of John Wick (suburban dad + retired assassin), being made with some wit and inspiration. Whereas that first film was a pleasant surprise and the ultimate “Dad Movie,” Nobody 2 is the obligatory, less-inspired throwaway sequel. It should be a lark that slightly ups the ante, but it’s closer to being a nothing burger that rests on its laurels.
Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) has become a workaholic dad cliché, always at the office (read: taking hit jobs to pay off his debts to the Russian mob), always missing dinner, and always missing his son’s hockey games. His wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), is getting tired of this new normal, but as summer break is almost over, Hutch decides to take the family (and Grandpa, played by Christopher Lloyd) to his old childhood vacation spot, the town of Plummerville, complete with Wild Bill’s Majestic Midway and Waterpark. He wants to make it up to Becca and the kids, but once daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) and son Brady (Gage Munroe) have an encounter with some less-than-welcoming locals, the shady sheriff (Colin Hanks) and park operator (John Ortiz) learn the hard way that Hutch is not just some mild-mannered family man. Just wait until the real mastermind, drug and bootlegging boss Lendina (Sharon Stone), hears about it all.
Nobody was like the more crowd-pleasing, kick-ass version of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. Nobody 2 was welcome to lean even more into being a National Lampoon’s Vacation riff, but it’s just one of the same and simultaneously less of the same. Hutch’s constant attempts to “de-escalate” a situation and pleas to get “a fucking break” can be amusing for a while. Bob Odenbirk is still very likable and wouldn’t dare phone in a performance, as Hutch reaching his breaking point and delivering the pain still has its catharsis, but maybe it’s time for Hutch to hang up his assassin hat.
Director Timo Tjahjanto, taking over for Ilya Naishuller, and writers Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin don’t really have a story here that needed to be told. It helps that some of the action sequences are still well-staged, like a one-on-four fight aboard a tourist duck boat (where the tour guide and two patrons are oblivious to the mayhem behind them), but none of them are as memorable as before. The whole waterpark-vacation setting is no more than window dressing, aside from a few violent pleasures on the carnival side of the park and a waterslide kill. RZA also returns for one terrific katana-slicing moment, while Christopher Lloyd (who was such a great surprise to see last time) just gets sidelined too often, playing the grandpa shtick in summer gear and later shooting a machine gun.
The one delicious jolt of unpredictability comes from Sharon Stone chewing scenery for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as an icy, ruthless, French Bulldog-holding villain. However, the part of Lendina really doesn’t give her much to do besides look like a badass (or ready reboot The Matrix with a trench coat) and threaten everyone. This should be a show-stopping turn with Stone’s commanding presence, but the script never quite gets her there.
Armed with too many lame one-liners and too much noticeably sloppy ADR, Nobody 2 is just never as cute or as slick as it wants to be. As the first Nobody actually made good on some ironic music cues (which was becoming a rather stale choice to bring personality to action comedies), this one’s use of Céline Dion’s “The Power of Love” just falls flat. Like Clark Griswold with a heavy fist, Hutch keeps saying he wants to make memories with his family, but nobody will remember this brief, middle-of-the-road, occasionally diverting sequel by the time summer ends.
Rating: 2/5
Nobody 2 hits theaters on August 15, 2025.
