Nobody 2 is a simple, summer-style, kick-ass sequel to the Bob Odenkirk-starring John Wick-esque original. Stripping this sequel of Nobody‘s twisty story structure and unpredictable moments, Nobody 2 nonetheless retains enough grip on the work-life balance struggles, the cast’s star power, and over-the-top action to please. After burning all that money and destroying a Russian bank in Nobody, this sequel sees former government assassin Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) paying off his gang debts by taking new missions. However, after his newest one, he requests a break to go on vacation with his family to an old water park and town called Plummerville, which his dad, retired FBI agent David (Christopher Lloyd), used to take him to. Promising his wife and kids that he’ll remain present through the whole trip—especially as his wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) warns of their son’s increasing likeness to Hutch’s violent side—he quickly breaks his promise upon finding the town corrupted. Arrogant cops, a worse park owner, and unpunished jerks for children all infest Hutch’s remembered childhood paradise. He quickly discovers that Plummerville’s a large checkpoint for a drug trade route, forcing him to find a way to serve justice without breaking his promise to his family, especially as the psychotically despicable gang leader Lendina (Sharon Stone) steps in to stop Hutch from ruining her empire.

For many, family is everything. Family can sometimes be chosen, but for the most part, we’re all born into our families and all the baggage that comes with them. Whether you have the nuclear family ideal, nothing but an adopted brother and a deadbeat dad, or anything else in between, family can function as our support system, the ones who make us laugh or, worse, the ones who make us cry and seek support elsewhere. Nobody 2 focuses primarily on Hutch’s family dynamic with his wife and kids, expanding on the original’s work-life balance struggles while shedding off much of the unpredictability that made Nobody so fresh. For that, Nobody 2 can be seen as a very barebones sequel. It’s predictable, Lendina’s cartoonish, David is sidelined, there’s less thematic interplay than in the original, and there isn’t much character development for Hutch or anybody else. If there are plans for more Nobody movies, the filmmakers need to continue without thinning everything down further; they don’t want nobody to see Nobody, right? But Nobody 2 has enough entertainment value, familial damage, dynamic shifts, tight action, and impeccably funny and grave performances to entertain and convince, making it damn fun and relatively heartfelt.

Nobody 2 sees Hutch try to separate work from his personal life with relative grace and appeal. He tells everyone around him, professional acquaintances and his kids alike, with fatigue-heavy eyelids and drained pupils, that “I need a break. I need a fucking break.” While the sentiment is nice, no one believes him and tells him as much: “You… take a break? This job is in your nature, and nature always wins. Wherever you go… there you are,” Hutch’s former government handler (Colin Salmon) tells him almost humorously. With such a violent streak that leaves dozens and dozens dead and injured in his wake, he can’t stop even temporarily, which he quickly learns. In Plummerville, after a tense run-in with a standoffish sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks)—”You know, it’s not polite to eyeball the law,” Abel says before fiendishly stepping inches away from Hutch’s face—leads Hutch to escort the family to the park arcade, Hutch’s son Brady (Gage Munroe) gets into a fight with the park owner’s son, Max (Lucius Hoyos), prompting a worker to kick the entire family out and flicking Brady’s younger sister’s head as they leave. While Hutch initially agrees to Becca’s pleas to “Just leave it. We’re leaving,” outside, his ears begin to ring, time slows down, and he tells his family, “I think I left my phone inside. I’ll be right back,” before he charges back in and beats everybody down.

His wife and daughter are wide-eyed and horrified, with Becca tearing into him later for such actions:
“Hutch, you promised me. You promised. You broke the promise.” However, Brady admires it and mirrors it, as he did in the arcade starting that first fight, forcing Hutch to face the consequences of his actions head-on. Like many dads, he attempts to tell his son what he shouldn’t take away from Hutch’s impulsivity: “I understand protecting your sister, Brady. But there are other ways to handle things…. You have to be better than your old man.” Such hypocrisy in the ‘do what I say, not what I do’ sentiment Hutch tries to pass on is a violent version of the same thing many parents try to do in parenting their kids. Often, people recognize their faults even if they can’t change them, as Hutch himself later admits: “I don’t have control over this. I’m just realizing that.” Parenting becomes almost the answer to correcting one’s past mistakes, a selfish—but human—means to an end of their guilt over the flaws they cannot control. Seeing Hutch reconcile with his drive towards violence as one of his deepest flaws instead of just a vehicle for audiences to see top-notch action makes Nobody 2 a personally weighted popcorn flick that says a bit more about actions’ consequences than one may expect. Combine that with the cast’s wholly enveloping star power, John Wick-style one-shot action, and the occasional quip or gag that keeps things light, and Nobody 2 is a propulsive romp through hearts and hellishly “scorched earth,” as Lendina eventually requests.

While numerous flaws keep Nobody 2 from reaching the same heights as the 2021 original—there’s almost no exploration of Hutch’s dynamic with his brother Harry (RZA) or father David, his family forgives him in the matter of two lines and Lendina is a wasted villain—Nobody 2 is still a decently interpersonal and marital exploration of an ex-government assassin’s life when he tries to relax. For Nobody fans, Odenkirk fans, action fans, and those looking for a good summer time passer, Nobody 2 will probably be a fun (if a bit underbaked) pick.

Opens Friday, 8/15 @ Kendall Square Cinema, Apple Cinemas Cambridge, Capitol Theatre, Alamo Drafthouse Boston Seaport, and all local AMCs