The Movie Guru: ‘Nobody 2’ violently delightful, but ‘Weapons’ marred by ending

‘Nobody 2′ (in theaters)

The “Nobody” experience is unique in the realm of action movies.

For the first half of the movie, you will be almost cringingly worried for this nice middle-aged man named Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) who cannot seem to get things together. For the second half of the movie, you will delight in watching that very same man do an incredible amount of violence to a bunch of people who really, really deserve it. Because it turns out that Hutch once did a very specific kind of government work, the same kind of work his own father once did, and no matter how much he sometimes fails at life, he is very, very good at his old job.

“Nobody 2” actually improves on the original, however, by getting Hutch’s family more involved. They know what dear old dad (once again) does for a living, but the sheer amount of time it takes is putting a strain on his marriage (to an excellent Connie Nielsen, who takes full advantage of the chance to expand her character). Their son (a great Gage Munroe) has his dad’s instinct for both protectiveness and violence, making Hutch feel guilty.

A vacation should fix everything though, right?

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There’s a wonderfully creative edge to the violence, along with an attention to detail that might tip over into gore for some people. It’s also weirdly heartwarming, with a strong focus on the people Hutch cares about and who care about him. Yes, he kills people for a living, but he’s also genuinely a good guy who loves his family.

He’s just not that good at the whole “normal life” thing.

Grade: Three and a half stars

‘Weapons’ (in theaters)

It’s one thing to make an interesting movie, and another to actually stick the landing.

“Weapons” does the first one, but not the second. Most of the movie is a chilling, gross, occasionally absurdly funny mediation on the horror of large-scale tragedies. The nods to American school shootings and mob mentalities are clear and powerful, at least for most of the film. It’s cleverly constructed, scary, thoughtful, and constantly engaging. It freaks you out and makes you think at the same time, which is one of the highest things a horror movie can do.

At least, it is until you get to the ending. That’s where the movie is forced to reveal the actual explanation for the mass disappearance of almost an entire classroom full of children, all of whom ran away at the same time in the middle of the night. When they do finally tell us the reason, it’s so simplistic and cheap it makes the whole thing tumble like a house of cards.

It’s almost embarrassing how much of a cliché the ending is, a stereotype so base and overdone you’d expect to find it in the worst sort of B movie. The fact that the movie that came before it was so interesting and well-layered just makes the ending come off that much worse. It’s a cliché writer/director Zach Cregger is particularly fond of, as anyone who’s seen his “Barbarian” will know, but using it here cheapens everything that came before it. 

In this case, maybe the mystery would have come off better without any explanation at all.

Grade: Three stars

Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Denver Film Critics Society and the Utah Film Critics Association. Drop her a line at themovieguruslc@gmail.com.