Okay, let me just put this out there right away: I absolutely adore Bob Odenkirk. Like, seriously adore him. I've been following this guy since his SNL writing days, watched him completely transform into Saul Goodman in what might be one of the greatest TV performances ever, and cheered when he popped up in The Bear being absolutely perfect at that chaotic family dinner table. This man has built his entire career on playing characters who survive on pure wit and nervous energy, not biceps and six-packs.
So when he had that heart attack on set, I genuinely worried about him. Watching him bounce back and somehow become an action hero at almost 60 in the first Nobody movie? That felt like the most inspiring comeback story ever. That movie was this dark, intense masterpiece that came out during the pandemic when we all needed something cathartic to watch.When they announced a sequel, I'll be honest—I rolled my eyes a little. The trailer made it look like they were just going to throw him into some goofy water park setting, and I thought, "Oh great, here we go with the typical sequel nonsense."I have never been happier to be completely wrong about a movie.Nobody 2 is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way, and I walked out of that theater grinning like an idiot.Here's what's brilliant about this sequel: instead of just repeating the first movie's formula, it completely flips everything. The first one was about a guy whose buried rage finally explodes. This one? It's about a guy who's basically addicted to the adrenaline now and can't figure out how to be a normal dad. He's missing his kid's basketball games because he's too busy being a badass, which is both hilarious and oddly relatable (minus the assassin part, obviously).
Director Timo Tjahjanto had this genius idea to turn it into basically a family vacation movie—if your family vacation involved cartels and creative violence. Picture National Lampoon's Vacation, but Clark Griswold used to be a government assassin and the theme park is run by criminals. The moment they arrive at this hilariously run-down water park called "Splash Valley," you can feel the movie just embrace its own weirdness.
And wow, does it get weird. The whole plot kicks off over a freaking skee-ball game dispute, which is so perfectly absurd I can't even handle it. Colin Hanks shows up as this perfectly slimy local corrupt guy, but he's nothing compared to Sharon Stone, who swoops in like some kind of criminal mastermind queen bee. She's playing this character called Lendina, and Stone is having SO much fun with it—she's like a cartoon villain brought to life, all smiles and switchblades and pure chaos energy.