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Nobody Reviews

Nobody ... makes no false pretenses in its practical re-creation of the Wick franchise

Full Review | Jul 19, 2024

You will not believe how smooth and just flat-out joyous a movie like this is with Odenkirk doling out the punishment. It’s just a delight.

Full Review | May 3, 2024

It has a fast-paced start that often benefits from Bob Odenkirk's physical prowess for action sequences, but unfortunately it often stumbles over a regular tone that prevents it from escaping the clichés of the genre. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 15, 2024

... A film that aims nothing more than to play with genre boundaries to put the action story back into work; well-told, better-filmed, and one hundred percent delightful. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 4, 2023

Odenkirk submits his action hero punch card & can take my money any day of the week with it all. It knows how wild it is & it goes about it in spades with its 90 minute runtime

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Despite its intentions, Nobody feels condescending and portentous far more often than it actually feels campy and self-aware.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2023

…Nobody’s standard-issue plotting and tired male posturing land far short of the B-Movie classic it aspires to, but there is enough brisk action and some bonuses, largely through the casting of veterans like Michael Ironside and Christopher Lloyd…

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2023

Nobody is a bone-crunching, knuckle-busting, lip-splitting action film that has every intention of dragging you across concrete with the taste of asphalt in your mouth and bits of glass in your forehead.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 9, 2022

Nobody is an arresting action showcase for star Bob Odenkirk and a skillfully staged spectacle of stuntwork nearly on par with the John Wick trilogy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

A unique take on the action genre, Nobody is lean, mean, and showcases a delightful Odenkirk leading the way through all the carnage.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 17, 2022

As “Nobody” propels forward the violence gets crazier and the body count mounts. Yet the movie never loses its self-awareness.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2022

Nobody feels like the cinematic brother to one of my favourite films of recent years, Michael Caine's Harry Brown, equally as violent and satisfying.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 16, 2022

A well-executed and fun film full of gunfire left and right... There's never a surplus of those. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 9, 2022

Hardly an enlightened examination of modern manhood.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Mar 16, 2022

In a world filled with a recent collection of well-made action films, Nobody is a great addition to this action renaissance. If this is the Bob Odenkirk John Wick, when can we expect the Rhea Seehorn Atomic Blonde?

Full Review | Mar 8, 2022

Nobody will thrill people who fancy some violent laughs. Its perhaps best summed up by Lloyds assessment of his sons handiwork excessive, but glorious!

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2022

The director's knack for bravado action shines in part because Kolstad's script makes us care about Hutch, but we only care because he is perfectly cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 12, 2022

In a world full of tough talkers who boast what theyd do if given half a chance, heres a refreshing reminder what you dont know is reason enough to probably leave someone alone.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 3, 2022

Even better is Odenkirk who trained for two years to become an action hero - and owns it.

Full Review | Nov 30, 2021

Odenkirk is unsurprisingly brilliant, and the film is a hell of a lot of fun.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2021

• Trending on RT

Nobody First Reviews: A Bloody, Funny, Stylish Shot of Adrenaline

Critics say the bob odenkirk movie feels like the snarky cousin of john wick , full of sly winks, memorable characters, and a healthy dose of outrageous action..

TAGGED AS: Action , First Reviews , movies , reviews

From the creator of the John Wick   franchise comes Ilya Naishuller’ s Nobody , a similar action movie about a retired family man with a particular set of skills who goes up against the Russian mob. This one gives us comedic actor and Better Call Saul   star Bob Odenkirk as the unlikely lead, and according to most of the early reviews of the movie, it’s worth seeing for him alone. That and a ton of brutal action and a tone that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Here’s what critics are saying about Nobody :

Is Nobody a good time at the movies?

Nobody doesn’t take itself seriously and just wants the viewer to have fun and have a moment to tune out from the real world for a couple of hours. –  Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds

Is it a good movie? Not exactly. But its 90 minutes fly by, and it’s a canny vehicle for Odenkirk. –  Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Naishuller and Odenkirk prove to be a winning duo of entertaining chaos. –  Preston Barta, Fresh Fiction

An immensely entertaining experience… You’re in for a wild ride that never lets up. –  Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

Will it satisfy action junkies?

Action-movie lovers get plenty to love, from an appearance from 1980s tough-guy actor Michael Ironside to well-crafted two-fisted affairs. – Brian Truitt, USA Today

Its approach to methodically crafted action will leave you cheering in your seat… This is an action film crafted by action fans with style, love, and the slyest of winks. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Nobody  doesn’t just exist in the action genre but adds to it. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

The combat, while not as flashily shot as the work of [ John Wick directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch], is utilitarian enough to get the job done. – Kyle Pinion, ScreenRex

(Photo by Allen Fraser/©Universal Pictures)

How violent is it?

[The bus scene is] one of those movie fights that just goes on and on, the violence moving from brutal to funny through sheer, absurd duration. It’s amazing. – A.A. Dowd, AV Club

The hyper-stylization and blood-letting are grounded by the gallows humor. – Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

Nobody  simply doubles down on the genre’s most immoral implication, for unquestioningly equating manliness with brute violence. – Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

How is Ilya Naishuller’s work as director ?

With his second feature, Ilya Naishuller has grown as a filmmaker and truly has the potential to be one of the most exciting action directors working. – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

[He] may be as far as you can get from a psychological realist… but he’s a born filmmaker. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Naishuller stages the action effectively (that bus sequence stands out), delivering visceral thrills even for those of us who are keeping our distance. – John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

Naishuller is quite good at directing action. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

How does it look ?

Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography is just fabulous in the film… Violence has never looked this beautiful. – Dewey Singleton, AwardsWatch

Midsommar and Hereditary cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski brings the same slick camera maneuvers that elevated those movies to dreamlike planes in service of pure entertainment. – Eric Kohn, IndieWire

Shout out to cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, because stylistic flair becomes that much more important as narrative throughlines are straighter than arrows. – Matt Donato, What to Watch

How is Bob Odenkirk as an action hero?

He’s simply awesome and owns this movie. – Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson

A credible Jekyll and Hyde act… It’s a blast seeing the actor in this kind of role, even if  Nobody  does vaguely play like the nihilistic cartoon version of a Vince Gilligan arc. – A.A. Dowd, AV Club

The Odenkirk-ness is really all there is… which is enough to keep things interesting, if not make them all that good. – Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

[This] may leave you longing to watch  Better Call Saul  and Odenkirk’s thorny performance as Saul Goodman, a truly piercing dramatization of frustration and failure. – Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

Odenkirk deserves way better. – Kyle Pinion, ScreenRex

Does anyone in the supporting cast stand out ?

Christopher Lloyd is a special delight as Hutch’s shotgun-toting father. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Christopher Lloyd renews his classic mad-science energy with a devious twist. – Eric Kohn, IndieWire

An appearance by RZA as Hutch’s brother, whose own hidden talents aid Hutch in his quest for vengeance, also adds some comedic flair to this story. – Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds

Other than Odenkirk, they have little to work with and don’t leave an impression. – Chris Agar, ScreenRant

How is the villain?

With a fearsome magnetism that’s at once authentic and operatic… He’s like the Frankenstein’s monster of hard-partying hooligans. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

It all goes downhill once the villain, Yulian, is dropped into play. – Kyle Pinion, ScreenRex

One of the blandest movie villains in recent memory. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

That Yulian fails to be compelling or intimidating contributes to the film’s overall low stakes. – Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

What about the writing ?

The plot of Nobody is, in a word, preposterous… It’s just a cardboard fable. But when the ultraviolence erupts, the movie pops. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

The plot is absurd and could fall apart easily when looking back on it… Is it trying to say anything? Not really. This is as slight as it gets. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

There’s some unwise and unnecessary narration early on, but the already slim exposition is tidily delivered in oft-comedic ways. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Nobody  seems to think that if it follows a paint-by-numbers  Wick  formula, that’ll be enough. It’s not. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

The story lacks the emotional impact for the film to truly connect with viewers. – Chris Agar, ScreenRant

Is the movie funny ?

The film also happens to be a masterclass in sardonic humor. – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

This isn’t a parody, but it offers sly humor on many levels…[and] a couple of well-timed visual gags. – Brian Truitt, USA Today

I was hoping for more comic relief lines. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

Is it trying too hard to be  John Wick ?

Kolstad’s script takes a similar idea but finds the different wrinkles to… create a unique film in the similar mold. – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

Like Kolstad’s  John Wick , but it makes its own way with more humor and charisma than the more silent and gritty counterparts. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

You could call  Nobody  Wickian… In philosophy, however, we’re stuck in  Death Wish  territory. – A.A. Dowd, AV Club

If John Wick is Buster Keaton, Hutch is Harold Lloyd. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

The influence is unmistakable to the point where it keeps  Nobody  from fully creating its own identity. – Joshua Starnes, VitalThrills.com

Should it get its own franchise ?

Move over John Wick and make way for Hutch Mansell. – Dewey Singleton, AwardsWatch

[It] leaves you eager to follow the Mansells on any blood splatter-filled journey. – Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

Nobody  features an instantly iconic action trio that I’d never imagine in a million a years. Now I want spinoffs and sequels with these characters. – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

The worst thing you can say about it is this: It’s satisfying enough that it could spawn sequels, possibly distracting its star from the plum dramatic roles he deserves. – John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

Nobody  releases in theaters on March 26, 2021.

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Bob Odenkirk takes an unexpected turn in Ilya Naishuller ’s “Nobody,” a clever action flick that repositions the star of “Better Call Saul” as someone closer to Liam Neeson ’s action heroes. While imagining one of the brilliant minds behind “Mr. Show” as an action hero may seem like a stretch, it turns out to be a stroke of genius as Odenkirk grounds his violent protagonist with a very special set of skills in a way that other actors would have missed. He’s great as a man who has tried to leave a violent past behind, but movies have taught us for generations that that’s easier said than done.

“Nobody” opens with a montage of the mundanity of Hutch Mansell’s daily existence. Every day, he scans the same transit card; every week, he misses the trash man by mere seconds. Life is a series of routines, which has eaten away at his marriage to Becca ( Connie Nielsen ) while providing a relatively happy home for his kids, Blake ( Gage Munroe ) and Abby ( Paisley Cadorath ). Hutch works at a manufacturing company owned by his father-in-law Eddie ( Michael Ironside ) and dominated by his alpha brother-in-law Charlie ( Billy MacLellan ). Luckily, writer Derek Kolstad doesn’t waste too much time on Hutch’s normie suburban existence, thrusting viewers into the action of “Nobody” almost immediately.

It starts with a home invasion, in which two bottom-level criminals rob the Mansells of some spending money and a few trinkets. Hutch has the drop on one of them, golf club raised in the air, but he doesn’t take the chance at elevating the violence, much to the disappointment of his son and disdain of his dude-bro male neighbor. When it looks like the invaders may have taken poor Abby’s kitty-kat bracelet, Hutch snaps, tracking them down to retrieve it.

However, “Nobody” is not really a “Death Wish”-esque story of an average guy turned vigilante. There are hints very early on that Hutch isn’t just a normal suburbanite. Even his man cave seems laid out to hint at a different background than your neighbor, including a radio through which he speaks to his brother Harry (RZA), who is in hiding. Why? And what’s up with the box of fake IDs and money that Hutch’s father David ( Christopher Lloyd ) has been storing away? When the bracelet retrieval job goes a little sideways, Hutch is on a bus heading home when he encounters a group of obnoxious drunks harassing a woman who’s on her own. He takes it upon himself to protect her and essentially starts a violent war with a Russian crime lord named Yulian ( Aleksey Serebryakov ).

The bus scene that initiates the real action of “Nobody” is the kind of action choreography work of art that will have devoted audiences applauding at screenings for years to come. It’s a clever piece of filmmaking that starts with Hutch throwing himself into a few awkward exchanges with his new enemies and continues to elevate, almost as if this encounter is awakening his skill set one punch at a time. Choreographed by the team behind “ John Wick ,” it’s the type of action scene that people will be mentioning with a smile for a long time, and a reminder of the adrenalin that a film can get from a creatively crafted action scene.

Other than a scene that sets up Yulian as a psychopathic villain that runs a bit too long, Naishuller is smart enough to use the momentum from the bus scene to push through the rest of the story. “Nobody” is an incredibly quick film, an experience that feels nowhere near as long as its 92-minute runtime. One could argue that the movie could have used a bit more prologue that would make Becca and their children into characters instead of functions for the plot, but there’s a tightness to “Nobody” that’s often lacking in modern films, one that’s reminiscent of the economy of the “John Wick” flicks, which is one of that trilogy’s greatest strengths.

Then there’s Odenkirk. Watching “Nobody” a second time made it easier to appreciate how much he brings to a role that someone could have easily sleepwalked through for a paycheck (this would be a much lesser movie with the current king of the Paycheck Performance, Bruce Willis , for example). Odenkirk deftly sells both halves of Hutch, making both his current family life and his violent past believable. It’s a smart performance, which should come as no surprise to fans of his work on “Breaking Bad” and “Saul,” but it’s also a wonderfully physical one in that he makes the stunt work and fight choreography genuine. The supporting cast is strong—particularly RZA and Lloyd, both of whom know exactly what to bring to this project—but it’s Odenkirk’s film through and through, and he nails it.

Unsurprisingly from the director of the insanity that is “ Hardcore Henry ,” Naishuller has a habit of overplaying his stylistic hand every now and then with slo-mo montages set to unusual music choices. And there’s a version of the film that feels like it has higher stakes—no one ever really feels in jeopardy here (at least “John Wick” had the dog). But Naishuller ultimately gets what matters here right, giving a talented actor an unexpected vehicle to drive really fast with just enough bloodshed for action fans, and not too much gore for average audiences. It’s the rare modern action film that makes me hope it does well enough to produce a sequel. (I also think there’s potential for a crossover “John Wick vs. Nobody” project that would make roughly a gajillion dollars worldwide.)

“Nobody” works because it values scene construction and action choreography above all else, leaving behind pretension and the overplotting that’s been common in the genre in recent years. It doesn’t break any molds so much as present a really good time within a familiar structure. After a year with too few action movies because of the shelving of the blockbuster, “Nobody” gives viewers an adrenalin rush that almost feels new again. 

Only in theaters tomorrow, March 26th.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Bob Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell
• Connie Nielsen as Becca Mansell
• Gage Munroe as Blake Mansell
• RZA as Harry Mansell
• Aleksey Serebryakov as Yulian Kuznetsov
• Christopher Lloyd as David Mansell
• David Buckley
• Derek Kolstad
• Evan Schiff
• William Yeh
• Ilya Naishuller

Cinematographer

• Pawel Pogorzelski

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A docile family man slowly reveals his true character after his house gets burgled by two petty thieves, which, coincidentally, leads him into a bloody war with a Russian crime boss. A docile family man slowly reveals his true character after his house gets burgled by two petty thieves, which, coincidentally, leads him into a bloody war with a Russian crime boss. A docile family man slowly reveals his true character after his house gets burgled by two petty thieves, which, coincidentally, leads him into a bloody war with a Russian crime boss.

• Ilya Naishuller
• Derek Kolstad
• Bob Odenkirk
• Aleksey Serebryakov
• Connie Nielsen
• 2.5K User reviews
• 293 Critic reviews
• 64 Metascore
• 5 wins & 18 nominations

Top cast 64

• Hutch Mansell

• Yulian Kuznetsov
• (as Alexey Serebryakov)

• Becca Mansell

• David Mansell

• Eddie Williams

• Harry Mansell

• Charlie Williams

• Brady Mansell

• Sammy Mansell

• Teddy Kuznetsov

• Lupita Martin

• Luis Martin

• Pentagon Darren
• (as JP Manoux)

• Hitman Anatoly

• Hitman Valentin
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Based on an idea by Bob Odenkirk , who dealt with a home invasion himself by trapping the trespassers in the basement. He was frustrated with how the authorities dealt with the situation and had thought about how he would take the matter into his own hands if he "was a badass."
• Goofs When Hutch gets his brother's text message telling him to go see the barber, his face can be seen in close-up with no scars whatsoever. Next shot, when he arrives at the barber's, his scars are back.

Hutch Mansell : You brought a lot of shotguns.

David Mansell : You brought a lot of Russians.

• Crazy credits There is a bonus scene during the credits in which Hutch's dad David (Christopher Lloyd) and his brother Harry (RZA), are driving in a camper van loaded with weapons.
• Connections Featured in Evening Urgant: Efim Shifrin/Ilya Naishuller (2021)
• Soundtracks Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood Written by Bennie Benjamin , Gloria Caldwell , Sol Marcus Performed by Nina Simone Courtesy of The Verve Music Group Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews 2.5K

• jack_o_hasanov_imdb
• Sep 4, 2021
• How long is Nobody? Powered by Alexa
• Does this movie take place in the John Wick Universe?
• What does the card tatoo on Hutch's wrist mean?
• The guy in the last tattoo parlor, who recognizes the card tattoo on Hutch's wrist looks a lot like Cillian Murphy. Especially the way his makeup was done like his role in A Quiet Place part 2. He has piercing eyes. Did he have an uncredited role?
• March 26, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official Instagram
• Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Eighty Two Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $16,000,000 (estimated)
• $27,568,035
• Mar 28, 2021
• $57,510,518

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 32 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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‘Nobody’ Review: Bob Odenkirk Gets His Death Wish On in an Action-Geek Fantasy That’s Not What It Seems

It may be preposterous, but Ilya Naishuller's don't-get-mad-get-even thriller confirms he's a born filmmaker.

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Before there were superhero films, there were don’t-get-mad-get-even films. You might say that the two genres have nothing to do with each other. But in the early-to-mid-’70s, when the revenge film as we know it was coming into being with “Dirty Harry,” “Walking Tall,” and “Death Wish,” part of the premise of the new pulp righteousness was that a man who seethed softly and carried a big weapon to cleanse the streets of “scum” had the kind of invincibility we now associate with demigods in spandex. The revenge genre, which could also be called the defend-yourself-because-no-one-else-will genre, became a mythology, a fusion of lone-wolf Western nostalgia and right-wing nihilism that any actor with enough muscle mass and the right scowl could plug into. Sly and Arnold, Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal, Bruce Willis — they all, in a way, played variations on the same character, the ruthless bruiser who could never be defeated because he had the wrath of nobility on his side. His squint of cool rage was the only superpower he needed.

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Which brings us to Bob Odenkirk . You might say that “ Nobody ,” in which the wily star of “Better Call Saul” and “Breaking Bad” plays a glum suburban drone who gets in touch with his inner thug-bashing badass, follows every rule of the genre. It’s got a hero who starts off as a workaday family man, with a nice wife (Connie Nielsen) and two nice kids. Then he’s attacked by criminals in his own home. After which he starts to play dirty, give into his death wish, and walk tall.

Popular on Variety

It’s in the middle of the night that a pair of robbers slip into the house. Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell, hearing noises, goes downstairs to investigate, and there’s a scuffle — but it’s between his teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe), and one of the intruders. Hutch, holding a golf club for protection, can’t bring himself to use it. The robbers leave, but Hutch finds himself being called a wimp. By who? By the cops, his son, and his macho neighbor. By everyone who hears about the incident.

We think we’re watching a movie about a paragon of middle-class mildness, like Bryan Cranston’s high-school teacher in “Breaking Bad” (or Bronson’s architect in “Death Wish”), who’s about to tap into something he has never felt before. But then Hutch, in a moment of existential meltdown, takes a midnight bus ride, and the bus is soon occupied by half a dozen Russian goons looking for trouble. Hutch takes the handgun his brother gave him and pointedly drops the bullets out of the chamber and onto the floor. He then takes on the entire gang with his bare hands (and a blade or two), introducing the fight with the Eastwood-worthy line, “I hope these assholes like hospital food.” Moments later, Hutch walks away, bruised but unbowed, and his victims are indeed headed for the hospital.

How did this happen? Hutch, it turns out, was never what he seemed. He’s got quite a backstory. And “Nobody” isn’t the movie it seemed either. It was directed by Ilya Naishuller, the audacious punk video auteur who has made just one previous feature, “Hardcore Henry” (2015), a spectacularly grandiose and innovative sci-fi noir action thriller done almost entirely in one shot, all from the point-of-view of its cybernetic hero. I found it at once annoying and amazing, and “Nobody” proves again that Naishuller, born in Russia and raised in London, may be as far as you can get from a psychological realist (the spirit of sin-city graphic novels and first-person-shooter video games flows through his blood) but he’s a born filmmaker.

“Nobody” is a thoroughly over-the-top and, at times, loony-tunes entry in the live-and-let-die vengeance-is-mine genre. Is it a good movie? Not exactly. But its 90 minutes fly by, and it’s a canny vehicle for Odenkirk, the unlikeliest star of a righteous macho bloodbath since Dustin Hoffman got his bear trap on in “Straw Dogs.” With his nerdishly parted receding hair, officious voice, and crestfallen air, Odenkirk could be the gloomier brother of Steve Carell, and you may wonder how we could start to buy him as the scariest person in the room. But Hutch possesses not so much brute strength as a certain deadly secret training and mad skill, and Odenkirk shows you how the payback brings him back to life. He’ll need every bit of that skill, too. One of the thugs he damaged is the brother of Yulian, a Russian mobster played by Aleksey Serebyakov (from “Leviathan”) with a fearsome magnetism that’s at once authentic and operatic. He’s like the Frankenstein’s monster of hard-partying hooligans.

The plot of “Nobody” is, in a word, preposterous, but Odenkirk’s conviction makes it work, as does the deranged twist of having Hutch team up with his retired FBI agent father (Christopher Lloyd) and adoptive brother (RZA). The movie is all about how Hutch, beneath his safe and colorless life, has to get back in touch with who he really is. And maybe that’s a metaphor for the way a lot of middle-class nobodies feel. It would be overstating things, though, to push the meaning of a thriller like this one too far. It’s just a cardboard fable. But when the ultraviolence erupts, the movie pops.

Reviewed online, March 18, 2021. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 91 MIN.

• Production: A Universal Pictures release, in association with Perfect World Pictures, of an 87North, Eighty Two Films, Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment production. Producers: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Braden Aftergood, Bob Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero. Executive producers: Derek Kolstad, Marc S. Fischer, Annie Marter, Tobey Maguire.
• Crew: Director: Ilya Naishuller. Screenplay: Derek Kolstad. Camera: Pawel Pogorzelski. Editors: William, Yeh, Evan Schiff. Music: David Buckley.
• With: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Alexey Serebryakov, Christopher Lloyd, RZA, Michael Ironside, Colin Salmon, Billy MacLellan, Gage Munroe.

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Nobody Review

05 Mar 2021

Better Cull Saul, anyone? For a decade or so now, as Jimmy ‘Saul Goodman’ McGill in both Breaking Bad and its prequel, Better Call Saul , Bob Odenkirk has made talking — invariably of the fast variety — his way out of danger into an art form. When the bullets start to fly, he’ll be found running as fast as he can in the opposite direction.

That all changes with the rollocking ride that is Nobody , in which Odenkirk makes a late bid for geriaction-hero status. By the end of Ilya Naishuller ’s movie, Odenkirk has racked up a body count around the triple figure mark. He is the danger. He is the one who knocks.

That Odenkirk — with able assistance from Naishuller’s inventive staging and the action aces of David Leitch and Chad Stahelski ’s gang of cunning stunts at 87North — can cut (and shoot, and stab) the mustard is deeply impressive. It would have been easy to turn this into a parody of action films, and have the central joke be that Odenkirk’s formidable-assassin-turned-family-man Hutch Mansell is woefully out of shape, wheezing his way through fight scenes. And there is a little of that, particularly in his first outing, in which he gets as good as he gives during an intervention on public transport. Otherwise, as Hutch gets back into the swing of things, he shows a yen for meting out punishment that makes John Wick look about as intimidating as a branch of Wickes.

There’s a cartoonish quality, and even a lightness of touch, to the violence.

Invoking Wick’s name is not an accident. Not only does Leitch, who co-directed the first of the Keanu Reeves action series, produce here, but the two films share a writer: Derek Kolstad . And there’s quite a bit of shared DNA, from the basic premise to the Russian bad guys. What makes this more than just a loose remake is in the tone. While Odenkirk, deliberately, isn’t running off his motormouth, this is so much funnier than the Wick movies which, for all their stylish gunplay, have a tendency to disappear up their immaculately tailored backsides. There’s a cartoonish quality, and even a lightness of touch, to the violence in Nobody that might disappoint anyone looking for a soul-searching treatise on vigilantism and the corrosive nature of vengeance.

This will leave some cold, while its central message, that all your problems can be solved by standing up for yourself and beating the shit out of anything that moves, is on the slightly problematic side. It’s also absolutely criminal to let Odenkirk and the likes of Christopher Lloyd have fun with guns, while leaving Connie Nielsen on the sidelines in a barely written role as Hutch’s wife. But the whole thing moves so quickly it’s hard to find time to lament these failings; plus, there are lashings of style (Aleksey Serebryakov’s bad guy gets an entrance for the ages), a great soundtrack (including a needle drop that will please fans of one football team in particular), and Odenkirk at his most infectiously charismatic. And if that still doesn’t work for you, there’s a cute kitten too.

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Screen Rant

Nobody review: bob odenkirk is john wick lite in emotionally flat action.

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For years, audiences have known Bob Odenkirk as lawyer Saul Goodman in the  Breaking Bad universe. In  Nobody , the actor tries his hand at being an action star. The film is written by Derek Kolstad, part of the creative team behind the now-iconic  John Wick franchise. Because of that connection, it was very easy to draw comparisons between  John Wick and  Nobody , with the hope being the latter could be a springboard to the next great genre series. Unfortunately, the film falls short of those aspirations.  Nobody delivers plenty of hard-hitting action audiences expect, but the story lacks the emotional impact for the film to truly connect with viewers.

In  Nobody , Odenkirk stars as Hutch Mansell, an average family man stuck in the same daily routine, living a rather mundane existence. That is until he becomes victim to a home invasion, during which he allows the perpetrators to get the better of him. This personal failure awakens a long-dormant side of Hutch. Before long, he finds himself taking action and standing up for himself to criminals. Unfortunately, this new approach puts Hutch in the crosshairs of dangerous drug lord Yulian Kuznetsov (Aleksey Serebraykov), leaving Hutch to fight for his life against a group of Russians.

Related: Nobody: Everything We Know About Bob Odenkirk's John Wick Clone

Kolstad's script borrows some tricks from the  John Wick playbook, namely in the sense it paints Hutch as a man with a violent past who's looking to move on to something more fulfilling. Sadly, this angle isn't fully fleshed out in  Nobody , as the film barely digs beyond the surface level of Hutch's family life. His wife and two children aren't so much realized characters as they are devices designed to illustrate Hutch's current state and attempt to get audiences to care about the protagonist. This makes the ensuing action sequences feel standard rather than cathartic, since  Nobody lacks a truly engaging emotional hook to draw viewers in. The thin narrative is further hurt by there not being a rich and interesting mythology to prop up  Nobody's world, so the screenplay comes across as generic instead of innovative.

Nobody  director Ilya Naishuller, best known for  Hardcore Henry , is clearly in his wheelhouse here, crafting a series of fun action set pieces. Nothing in  Nobody comes close to reaching the heights of  John Wick or similar titles, but they're still effective and filled with brutality to help deliver on  Nobody's R-rating. All of the action is also easy to follow, primarily taking place in wider angles with a lack of quick cuts. Due to the way  Nobody is shot, it's easy to tell Odenkirk committed himself to the physical component of his character, which definitely helps the action scenes flow and land with the intended impact. In terms of the story, they're rarely anything more than superficial thrills, but those looking for hard-hitting action will probably find something to enjoy. The bus fight that takes place early in the film is one sequence that stands out above the rest.

Odenkirk channels his likable screen presence and charisma to mold Hutch into someone the audience can root for. Part of the appeal of his casting, and what works well in the movie, is that he isn't the prototypical choice for this kind of role, but still finds a way to pull it off convincingly. Odenkirk's dramatic and comedic chops are also utilized well, particularly in scenes when Hutch reflects on his life and choices he's made. However, he is forced to carry the film on his shoulders, as many of the other roles are thinly-drawn. The supporting cast, consisting of big names like Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, RZA, and others, do not have much to do. This isn't to say anyone in  Nobody delivers a bad performance, it's just that other than Odenkirk, they have little to work with and don't leave an impression.

Instead of being the next  John Wick ,  Nobody plays out more as  John Wick lite, which could be disappointing for some. It's fun to see Odenkirk try something new at this stage in his career, and  Nobody clearly knows what it is and never takes itself too seriously (see: the moments of levity, the soundtrack full of licensed classics). Still, these merits don't truly help elevate the final product beyond fleeting entertainment. There's still a dearth of high-profile genre releases due to the pandemic, so those looking for stylish action may latch on to  Nobody . Still, it's not a title that demands to be seen on the big screen, especially with Universal making their movies available on-demand shortly after theatrical release. Those interested can wait until  Nobody can be watched at home.

Next: Watch the Nobody Trailer

Nobody opens in U.S. theaters on March 26, 2021. The film is 92 minutes long and is rated R for strong violence and bloody images, language throughout and brief drug use.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments!

Bob Odenkirk stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad, and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. However, when two thieves break into his suburban home, Hutch declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son is disappointed in him, and his wife seems to pull only further away - but the incident triggers the underlying rage in Hutch, leading him down a path to become a dangerous man with brutal skills and the attitude to match.  

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