Bob Odenkirk gets his John Wick moment (albeit lesser stakes) and it's pretty frigging awesome. The most fun film I've seen in a while. Also the best movie that Christopher Lloyd's been in in ages

I’ve tried to watch 3 new movies today – **Vanquish (2021), Nobody (2021), The Courier (2021)**. They have one thing in common - we're (back) in the very familiar political era where Russians are again the biggest and most amoral, vicious, evil ever. Here is the formula - _(A[Popular character actor]) + (B[Video game plot]) + (C[Russian villains)_ = 2021 Hollywood movies. **Nobody (2021)** and **Vanquish (2021)** are basically the same movie. RIP Mexican (or other Latin American) drug lords, you no longer exist in Hollywood world because you might hurt sensitive American feelings. Now it’s all about Russian mafia. **Nobody (2021)** is a celebration of American masculinity. Violence is the answer and is so awesome; Russians are bad, killing them leads to a fulfilling American life. That’s the moral of the story. Seriously! That’s it! The protagonist killed a bunch of people under the pretext Russians went to his house to get revenge. But it’s okay, it’s okay. Why? Because, he is 1) American, and 2) a former CIA agent, so it’s totally cool that he killed so many people. What are the consequences of his actions? Well, just like in real life after Americans are done with brutalizing and murdering people in foreign counties, they go on to live the American dream - a white picket fence suburban house with blonde wife and dumb children. Everything offered up here borders on cliché. The writing is super bland and predictable. The seven-minute introduction of the ~~quirky psychotic villain (who is as generic as they come) is a trope that is already tired enough. The characters are insanely one-dimensional, with no real traits that factor into the plot (besides _"the Russian villain", "the wife"_, etc.), there's zero purpose behind anyone's actions or the movie itself in its entirety. I'm so over movies about American (or British) exceptionalism. Americans just loooove the fantasy Hollywood version of themselves. All three movies offset the eyeroll-worthy ugliness of a 2021 film being about an American/Brit gleefully slaughtering a bunch of Russians. A heinous laundering of American/Bri'ish liberal chauvinism. They cater to a single demographic, and relies on unoriginal content to cover up the fact they are way too masturbatory that nobody outside of the target audience can relate. But this is the future of American/Bri'ish cinema, we are just going to constantly recycle the same themes and topics over and over again until the end of time. I'm reminded of Dziga Vertov's comment on Western Cinema from 99 years ago. >quote _“To the American adventure film with its showy dynamism and to the dramatizations of the American Pinkertons the Kinoks say thanks for the rapid shot changes and the close-ups. Good…but disorderly, not based on a precise study of movement…still lacking a foundation. **A cliche**.”_

This is not the Bob Odenkirk we've come to expect! While it's great to see him kick some ass, the film feels a bit odd. As with any hard-nosed action film, there's not much character development, but in this film it doesn't really work. Odenkirk is brilliant in _Breaking Bad_, _Better Call Saul_ and even _Fargo_ because of his character's complex moral code and overall character development. Too much, from almost all of the characters, goes unsaid here. But the whole film feels as if it's missing an extra half hour of backstory.

Genuinely enjoyed watching this. Sometimes 'entertaining' is all a movie needs to be.

It’s John Wick, but with better acting. The movie is carried entirely by Odenkirk and the action, if that’s enough for you, watch it. As for myself, I can firmly say that that isn’t my bar. If you cannot give me at least an engaging character, or somewhat of a story that isn’t entirely by the books, chances are I’m gonna be bored for the majority of the film. Also, like John Wick, I’m sick of these movies being so insistent on being serious tough guy movies. Conceptually, there’s nothing wrong with it, but if you want to be that kind of movie, you have to put in the work intellectually when you’re writing the script (look no further than the Bourne movies, or Casino Royale). Derek Kolstad just doesn’t seem to be able to do that, everything that happens in his scripts always feels extremely theatrical and unrealistic (which also tanked his FatWS episodes). Either go the Marvel route and throw in some jokes, so that I care less about the logic, or write tighter screenplays. 4/10