Movie Review: Nobody 2 (2025)

Genre: Action Comedy  

Director: Timo Tjahjanto  

Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, John Ortiz, Sharon Stone, Christopher Lloyd  

Running Time: 89 minutes  

Synopsis: Supposedly retired undercover assassin Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) never stops working for his handler "the Barber" (Colin Salmon), straining his relationship with his wife Becca (Connie Nielsen). They finally agree to go on vacation with their two kids, plus Hutch's dad David (Christopher Lloyd). Hutch selects the derelict Plummerville amusement park as the vacation destination, because it was the one and only place his dad took him to as a child. Before long, Hutch tangles with the locals, including corrupt sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks) and amusement park owner Wyatt (John Ortiz), but the real behind-the-scenes villain is the ruthless Lendina (Sharon Stone). 

What Works Well: This sequel upgrades the cast, increases the focus on family, and retains the combination of wild action infused with wicked humour. The short duration ensures the next action set-piece is never more than a few minutes away, with Hutch determined that nothing will ruin his family vacation and willing to destroy a small town for the cause. Unlikely star Bob Odenkirk exercises his middle-aged brand of reluctant brawlery in a series of mostly short and sharp encounters with countless goons, the best highlights arriving at an arcade and then on a "duck" boat.

What Does Not Work As Well: Of course the originality is gone, and a sense of stretching the concept creeps in, most notably in a Home Alone at Walley World climax. Sharon Stone is a welcome addition but has to contend with a cartoonish over-the-top character.  

Key Quote:

The Barber (to Hutch): You'll want to de-escalate the situation.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: American Fiction (2023)

Genre: Drama Comedy  

Director: Cord Jefferson  

Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, John Ortiz, Adam Brody, Issa Rae, Stirling L. Brown  

Running Time: 117 minutes  

Synopsis: Dr. Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a black professor and author, labouring in obscurity because he does not care to write about black issues. Close to burn out, he spends time with his family in Massachusetts, where successive health crises strike his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams). Monk starts a romance with Coraline (Erika Alexander) and witnesses the success of new author Sintara (Issa Rae), whose debut novel about the "raw" black experience is celebrated in literary circles. As a joke Monk cranks out his own "raw" novel under a pseudonym, and it is immediately acclaimed a classic.

What Works Well: Wrapping biting satire around caustic social commentary, writer and director Cord Jefferson uses dry humour to expose hypocrisy in culture and the fleeting superficiality of topics-du-jour. Neither the weight of family tragedies descending on Monk nor his academic pursuits are of any interest to anyone else. But his throwaway crass novel about black thugs is suddenly all the rage amongst elites pretending to care. And when he tests insincerity limits by insisting on a vulgar title, the frenzy only intensifies. Jeffrey Wright rides Monk's downs-and-ups with an appropriate sense of bemused detachment. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The secondary characters surrounding Monk succumb to quantity over quality, adding some value but mostly accumulating into a pile of clutter and padding.

Conclusion: Perceptively on-trend.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Fallout (2021)

A drama about the aftereffects of tragedy, The Fallout is a clear-eyed yet tender look at two young lives forced to the limits of emotional resiliency.

High school students Vada (Jenna Ortega) and Mia (Maddie Ziegler) have little in common, but take refuge in the same bathroom stall during a school shooting. They are traumatized, but both survive. Vada's friend Quinton (Niles Fitch) loses his brother in the shooting.

In the aftermath, a friendship develops between the scrappy and grounded Vada and the more aristocratic dancer Mia. Vada now feels detached from her parents (John Ortiz and Julie Bowen), and her previously close relationship with younger sister Amelia is strained. She also withdraws from her best friend Nick (Will Ropp), who immerses himself in gun control activism. Mia and Vada experiment with drinks, weed, and intimacy, while Vada starts seeing therapist Anna (Shailene Woodley).

Less interested in a linear plot and more concerned with the everyday process of picking up the pieces, The Fallout is about what happens when the news cameras move on to the next story. Writer and director Megan Park crafts a quiet drama punctuated by moments of distress, as Vada and Mia navigate an uncharted wilderness filled with funerals, trauma, guilt, nightmares, emptiness, and the eternal loss of any sense of security.

The film embraces honest and raw emotions and refuses easy resolutions, as every character deals with the tragedy in their own way, none of them perfect, all bumping against unmarked bruises. Vada's pathway out of horror is filled with dead-ends, missteps, ups, downs, and jagged edges. Friendships are forged then tested, promising relationships flounder, and the most precious bonds start to disintegrate. Parents are more helpless and annoying than helpful, and Vada has to accelerate the growing up process and define new boundaries on the fly. 

Park draws out two eloquent performances from the young leads. Jenna Ortega allows Vada to cling to the illusion of being ok while she is clearly not. Maddie Ziegler as Mia is more soulful, seemingly popular but surprisingly already lonely before the shooting, and now relieved to find a new friend to help navigate the coping process. The scenes between them marinate in the comfortably awkward warmth of distressed youth forging precious but fragile connections.

The actresses safeguard the core, as in the absence of traditional narrative arcs the film sometimes drifts into repetitive notes. A faint light at the end of a disorienting tunnel does eventually start to flicker, although the monsters unleashed in a damaged mind are also on guard to block recovery paths.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Peppermint (2018)

A routine vigilante thriller, Peppermint features shallow characterizations, a high body count and stratospheric levels of implausibility.

At the Los Angeles Christmas fairgrounds, Riley North (Jennifer Garner) witnesses the murder of her husband Chris and daughter Carly by goons working for drug lord Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). A traumatized Riley identifies the shooters, but Garcia's intimidation extends into the justice system and the perpetrators walk free. Detectives Beltran (John Ortiz) and Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) are helpless, and Riley disappears.

After five years of weapons and martial arts training, Riley returns to Los Angeles and lives in a van parked on skid row. She initiates a murderous clean-up campaign targeting Garcia's organization and corrupt justice officials. FBI agent Lisa Inman (Annie Ilonzeh) joins Beltran and Carmichael in trying to stop the rampage, but Riley becomes a vigilante star on social media.

An elemental Death Wish knock-off, Peppermint does not bother with too much context or depth. Director Pierre Morel gets down to the business of killing from the opening scene, and within a couple of days Riley North proceeds to wipe out dozens of goons, gang leaders and assorted hangers-on, not to mention corrupt judges and lawyers. A few buildings are reduced to rubble, and one admittedly ramshackle neighbourhood destroyed.

Despite some suspect editing the action scenes are generally well executed, and Morel provides a glossy sheen as the bullets fly and blood flows. Chad St. John's script is humourless and witless, with most of the dialogue at cheap television show levels, but character evolution is the most glaring void. Riley transforms from anti-violence mom to a well-oiled killing machine, but the five intervening years are entirely skipped over. 

With a physically committed performance Jennifer Garner does her best to fill in the blanks, but Riley's sheer blood lust is beyond the reach of easy comprehension. The secondary characters are unimaginative stock creations, matched by an underpowered supporting cast. Peppermint is the flavour of ice cream young Carly orders just before she is killed, and most of it just melts into an unseemly puddle.



All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.