NOBODY became a surprise hit in 2021, which was a tricky time for all movies considering most folks were still staying home due to Covid. The idea of a family man who was a former assassin (played by the great Bob Odenkirk of BETTER CALL SAUL fame) having his past come back to haunt him, made for inspired comedy carnage from the filmmakers behind the JOHN WICK franchise. This weekend we’re getting NOBODY 2, which revisits the characters from the first film, this take with the pretense of a family vacation, but as you can imagine that getaway turns tough pretty fast.

Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) spends his days going on covert assignments now, which is actually being done to repay the heavy debt he caused in the first film to criminal organizations you don’t want to have mad at you. His wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) knows he’s still out there fighting nefarious types, and she isn’t happy about it, especially when his exploits take Hutch away from important family moments. In an effort to save the family dynamic, Hutch suggests they all take a vacation to visit the Plummerville water park he fell in love with as a kid, so they pick up Grandpa David (Christopher Lloyd) and head out for a fun time. Once there, it isn’t long before the family finds themselves in a conflict with a local football hero, and Hutch gets the attention of the town’s corrupt Sheriff (played by Colin Hanks), the town’s self-proclaimed leader (played by John Ortiz), and eventually the crime boss (Sharon Stone) using the town for running money, chemicals and worse. Now, what should have been a fun time with the family has become a fight for survival.

NOBODY 2 is basically a loose remake of the first film with a different setting and slightly evolved family dynamic. The plot is fairly by-the-numbers without a lot of surprises, but the allure here is watching Bob Odenkirk kick the butts of bad dudes in really intense ways, and he still sells those fight scenes quite well. Odenkirk seems the get the idea of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, so Hutch here is about the same as the Hutch we saw before, with the only major change being he really just wants to spend quality time with his family and keeps getting distracted. Connie Nielsen does a good job of showing disapproval of Hutch’s habits while also wanting to support and love her husband. The film even brings back RZA as Hutch’s brother from childhood, and he does here the same things he did the last time – used sparingly, but effective nonetheless. Even Christopher Lloyd gets in on the action toward the end, just like he did in the first film.

I enjoyed the new additions to the cast here, with John Ortiz becoming an unlikely ally to our hero, but I felt Colin Hanks was sadly wasted as the town Sheriff. His look and demeanor are great, and there’s potential for his character to be really memorable, but he just isn’t given much to do. Sharon Stone shows up pretty late in the story as the real villain of the piece, and while she’s clearly having fun hamming it up for the cameras, I wanted a little more depth to her character that we just never got.

The movie’s 89-minute run time is refreshing in this day and age of sometimes overly-long cinema, but it’s so quick and concise that I felt like there was room to breathe that never got used. The idea of Hutch being forced to pay back a huge debt is barely touched on and very much unresolved by the end of the story, which might be intentional to set up a third chapter for the franchise. There was also a potential subplot established of Hutch and his brother being treated poorly by their father as kids, but it never goes beyond a passing mention of his former lifestyle. I was also a little disappointed that the movie didn’t make use of Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” song featured in the trailers, made famous in NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION, especially since there are at least two different places in the film where it would have been very fitting, and I think that song would have complimented this all very nicely.

Director Timo Tjahjanto (the VHS movies) keeps the action coming here, and the film leans in more heavily on the comedy despite the sometimes graphic violence playing out on screen. It never lags, but it also never feels like it’s reaching its full potential. It’s safe to say if you liked NOBODY, you’ll likely enjoy NOBODY 2, though while fun and entertaining, the end result is fairly forgettable. It serves as a nice companion piece to the first movie, but doesn’t really do much to build on the concept.

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