2021 Nobody (23rd)

What else happened this year? The continuing global adventures of the Covid-19. I can't wait for the sequel.

What is the plot - in one sentence? In a weird mix of suburban America and Moscow, Bob Odenkirk is just a regular nobody, too timid to assert himself at work or disarm crooks who break into his house...

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? ... he's John Wick, retired from the special brand of the miltary which exists in movies where you're a one man army. He takes out a Russian mafia team with the help of his dad, an old mate, and some Home Alone style tricks, before the inevitable sequel.

What is the meaning of the title? He describes how his position in the military was a 'nobody'.

A little peek behind the curtains here, but I'm watching movies, writing notes, and then completing them weeks later. I had forgotten about this (dumb) scene where Bob uses a fire extinguisher to escape from the boot of a car. Make of that what you will.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Surprisingly no. But I do predict that this will age poorly because it's such a clear John Wick rip-off.

Any thoughts? Look, John Wick was pretty entertaining. The second one less so, and the third even less than that. Liam Neeson is doing this 'old guy defeats entires squadrons of goons' thing too, in fact, it goes beyond Gran Torino, Harry Brown, and Death Wish, and probably all the way back to the 12 labours of Herakles: it's an easy, satisfying genre. It's a nice bit of escapism that a guy working a regular job is actually a killer and able to right the wrongs of the world and destroy enemies by the busful. This example is pretty unmemorable, except the lead guy is Bob Odenkirk, the main badguy is a pretty threatening Russian gangster, and the whole thing must have been filmed and released during a global pandemic.

The usual plot holes for these movies happen - are there no police whatsoever in this city? For one, Bob drives around in a stolen car for the entirety of the second act. He also blows his house up by playing 'What a wonderful world' on a specially rigged LP player. What happens if he wants to hear that song without burning the house down? Do the entire Russian mafia really keep all of their possessions and money in a single 'American' city? I'm guessing no, but for this movie it's yes. Fine.

Is the club (the Russian villain uses it as his camp-de-guerre) a place where you can stab a guy in the neck and no one reacts, or is it the type of place where people run away because guns are pulled? The answer is both, and I'm pretty sure that this was filmed in Russia because it would have been easier to film there during the ongoing Covid conundrum.

Final thoughts? 'The scene on the bus' has a strong chance of becoming 'hot priest' of 2021. A scene that no one can shut up about but which isn't very good. For the record, Bob Odenkirk beats the shit out of a bus full of Russian gangsters to make himself feel better, one of them is related to a tough gangster, who then seeks vengeance. That's the plot. It's s simple and as dumb as that. 

This is a nonsense, aggressively dumb throwback which admittedly must have been fun to make, Odenkirk (who is KILLING it in Better Call Saul), and his ex-special forces dad Christopher Lloyd, at least seem to be having fun in it, and that's fine by me.the entire sub-plot of his family not knowing about what he's been up to, was as superfluous as it was boring. This was. And that's it.