I can say that I’ve been a fan of Bob Odenkirk’s going again literal a long time. Within the Nineties, my introduction to him got here by way of the hilarious and sensible sketches on Mr. Present with Bob and David (together with one-off appearances on a few of my favourite sitcoms), and like nearly anybody else you would possibly speak to, I used to be shocked by his flip to the dramatic taking part in the slippery Jimmy McGill a.okay.a. Saul Goodman on Breaking Unhealthy and Higher Name Saul. He’s repeatedly confirmed himself a sensible and gifted performer with great vary, and he has a singular charisma that lets him succeed as each a lead and in supporting roles.
No person 2
Launch Date: August 15, 2025
Directed By: Timo Tjahjanto
Written By: Derek Kolstad & Aaron Rabin
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, John Ortiz, RZA, Colin Hanks, Christopher Lloyd, and Sharon Stone
Ranking: R for robust bloody violence, and language all through
Runtime: 89 minutes
For that reason, the No person films frustrate me to an incredible diploma. I used to be dissatisfied once I noticed the unique again in early 2021; like every fan, I anticipated to take delight within the actor’s first flip as an motion star however as an alternative discovered myself underwhelmed by poor writing and shocked by its unhealthy messaging. Issues solely worsen in No person 2, because the script this time round is one way or the other much more rote, and it reveals Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell as a hero that’s fairly rattling unattainable to root for, even with the actor’s particular charms.
Like its predecessor, the prequel totally hangs on the viewers’s want to see a expertise like Bob Odenkirk participate in some brutal cinematic violence – however the easy novelty of the essential thought is gone now, and there’s no effort to compensate with anything. What outcomes is watching an unlikable protagonist get locked right into a plot that provides no stakes and what quantities to an disagreeable and unfulfilling cinematic expertise.
After spending No person conquering his boring suburban life by reengaging his love of violence, Hutch is reintroduced in No person 2 caught in one other rut: he’s compelled to carry out wetwork jobs so as to repay a debt incurred when he set fireplace to the Russian money stash within the first film, and a consequence is that he turns into distanced from his spouse (Connie Nielsen) and two youngsters (Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath). He’s in want of a break, and with bizarrely little pushback from his handler (Colin Salmon), he makes plans for a household trip.
Leaning into the nostalgia of the one journey he took along with his father (Christopher Lloyd) and brother (RZA) when he was a toddler, Hutch takes the Mansell clan to Plummerville – a vacationer entice with a water park and numerous different actions. What the exhausted murderer doesn’t know is that the place is a secret hub of felony exercise orchestrated by a boss named Lendina (Sharon Stone), and when he will get on the unhealthy facet of the native sheriff (Colin Hanks) and son of the city’s founder (John Ortiz), he finds himself as a goal and his household in peril.
Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell is a awful major character who solely will get worse within the sequel.
The important thing subject that haunts No person 2 is the truth that the protagonist generates all of his personal issues, and he doesn’t have the likability to make us respect his efforts to dig himself out of the outlet. The world of the movie doesn’t really impose any issues on him: when Hutch needs a trip from his debt-clearing murderer work, it’s granted with none protest or consequence, and regardless of all of his egocentric and violent habits, there may be seemingly no line that he can cross to earn what can be deserved ire from his household (Connie Nielsen’s Becca does draft a “We have to speak” textual content within the first act when he turns into an absence in her life, however that’s rapidly deleted and substituted for an “Okay love u,” and a correct confrontation by no means occurs).
He repeatedly claims that his massive motivation is to have a enjoyable trip along with his household filled with joyful reminiscences… however that comes whereas ignoring that he might simply do this by simply going anyplace apart from Plummerville and take his family members to a spot the place their lives aren’t in peril. To be honest, there are moments the place he makes robust ethical selections (like the choice to rescue a kidnapped teenager he discovers throughout a confrontation in a criminal offense den), however the film places a a lot higher emphasis on his purposes of rage in private and petty moments, and it renders him constantly difficult to root for.
Director Timo Tjahjanto’s motion expertise are obvious in No person 2, however do not enthrall as they do in his different films.
This unhealthy storytelling can’t assist however have a unfavorable influence on what drives No person 2, which is the motion. Director Timo Tjahjanto is an distinctive expertise on the subject of crafting chaotic and brutal battle scenes (2018’s The Night time Comes for Us is so jaw-dropping that it needs to be pre-empted with a “would possibly trigger TMJ” warning), and there may be some unbelievable choreography executed – but it surely’s all empty energy when the principle character’s journey is so pointless and the hazard by no means feels substantial. I can respect the enjoyable that the filmmakers had developing with concepts for flip a waterpark right into a slaughterhouse with numerous weapons, riggings, and explosives, however that interprets to simply moments of fleeting enjoyable on the massive display.
It’s made exceptionally clear all through the brisk 89 minute runtime that No person 2 will not be a movie meant to be taken too severely (greatest exemplified within the ludicrous scenery-chewing performed by Sharon Stone in her weirdly truncated, one-note efficiency as the principle baddie). However simply because a film is foolish doesn’t mechanically make it enjoyable, and I positively didn’t have any enjoyable. It does numerous what its predecessor did, solely worse, and with out even having the ability to activate the well-established charms of Bob Odenkirk, it’s a nasty time on the films.