Lurid, pulpy thriller from the writer and producers of John Wick is more brutal than stylish.
Nobody affords Bob Odenkirk a chance to embrace the violent inner child of lead character Hutch Mansell after a home invasion.
Director Ilya Naishuller utilizes his musical and music-video background ineffectually in luring a cipher out of his middle-aged malaise toiling in a shop for his father-in-law.
So, from a request about a kitty bracelet (think of Wick) provocations ensue after a flashback as teenage son Blake (Gage Monroe) and wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) treat him with disdain. She buffers him at night in bed with pillows.
The former Auditor will utilize his formidable past skills like Liam Neeson in the Taken movies. Almost in a Death Wish fashion with explosive traps awaiting many a thug.
In this scenario which might be Rea as bitingly satirical at times Hutch is pitted against powerful, sociopathic Russian underworld boss Yulian Kuznetsov ( Alexey Serebryakov). Yet Naishuller and scribe Derek Kolstad can’t make it nearly as inspired or at least engaging as Wick or Clive Owen in Shoot ‘Em Up’. Owen’s infant protector Wass up against Paul Giamatti and his goons which elicited more goofy antics and comic relief.
A highlight for the likely demographic takes place on a bus after an accosting which has Hutch doing with a fast-food straw what Owen did with a carrot. Leaving Yulian to remark ‘beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The acclaimed ‘Better Call Saul’ actor has transitioned well from comedy to drama and here displays a certain melancholic edge. Nobody is based on a traumatic incident in Odenkirk’s life, yet the result with little character emphasis is rather ill iudaed.