Sorry only the one image in this one and it's part of the "review". What review you may ask? Well it's the "review" on Nobody. Normally I only do video game "reviews" since my preferred forms of entertainment are books (including manga) and video games with a few tv and anime series thrown in there movies aren't really my thing. Obviously there's movies that I love (Hot Fuzz immediately comes to mind for me) but in general I'll watch them, hell I'll watch some of them multiple times if I like them enough, but they don't really affect me the same way books or video games do. So why the sudden need to review Nobody? Well it might actually be up there with movies I really enjoyed for one thing and for another it has no politics in it whatsoever (neither the regular kind or the identity kind) which immediately improves it.

Note there WILL be spoilers in this review, you have been warned.

The movie starts with a short montage of our main character, Hutch Mansall, going through his daily life. A routine of a morning run, some pullups, missing the garbage truck, getting breakfast and going to work. Fairly normal right? Well it is up until his house gets broken into, this one act is what sets the events of this movie in motion, Hutch has the opportunity to brain one of the burglars with a golf club while his son has the other one in a choke hold (from the looks of it) but he hesitates and then lets them go. Later on you find out that he wants to buy the place he's working at which is owned by his father in law and his later conversation with a mysterious voice on a radio is when we first get a glimpse of things not being as they might seem with Hutch when he explains why he didn't brain one of the burglars, the gun they had was empty in a panicked situation like that a regular person wouldn't notice a detail like that they'd be too scared after having a gun pointed at them. It's not until later after a visit with his father when his daughter asks about a bracelet that's gone missing that Hutch finally snaps.

We get another montage of him asking around tattoo shops using his father's old FBI badge, again another indicator that all is not as it seems since he managed to notice and remember a small detail like a tattoo, and it's not until he gets to his last stop of the night when his badge doesn't work. A veteran notices that the badge is out of date by about 20 years and the owner notices that it's not Hutch in the picture so he goes for a different tactic and flashes some cash and again we get another indication that Hutch isn't just a regular middle aged working dad when the veteran notices his tattoo, immediately stands up thanking Hutch for his service and leaving, locking the door behind him this is another good indicator of what's to come especially when the owner of the tattoo shop's voice cracks a bit when he talks to Hutch after this.

Hutch finds the burglars and gets his watch back, the movie does a really good job of showing that they only robbed Hutch out of desperation since they're pretty much dirt poor with a sick baby, and after leaving possibly the best part of the movie occurs; the bus fight. He's sitting there stewing, looking like a man who needs any excuse to get violent and then some drunk idiots appear like a gift from god. This particular scene is really effective at showing Hutch as an excellent if somewhat rusty fighter he takes his fair share of hits, even getting stabbed with a knife but does far, far more damage to his opponents despite being outnumbered and I feel that this sets the tone for every subsequent encounter whilst also giving him a choice to make when he gets thrown out of the window of the bus, he can either walk away and leave both he and his opponent's have taken their hits but no one died or he can go back in for more. He chooses to go back for more resulting in the idiots getting hospitilised while he limps home. After this we meet our big bad, Yulian, who initially comes off as a somewhat goofy club owner but I have to say the actor who plays him gets the sociopath look down to a fine art especially after he kills a dude to prove to the other Russian mob bosses that he's perfectly capable of guarding the vast amount of money they're sitting on he then gets a message that his brother was hospitilised, one of the idiots Hutch beat the shit out of on the bus, and sets Yulian and Hutch on a collision course. Yulian finds out where Hutch lives via his metro card (you see it multiple times in the opening montage and it's not too far fetched to think he dropped it in the bus during the fight without noticing) and again you get a glimpse into Hutch's past and what he really did before he settled down, hell the hacker that finds it out gives Yulian the information and quits on the spot.

This leads to the second big action scene in the movie, the home invasion where Yulian sends his right hand man (the only Russian in this movie not played by an actual Russian) and a few others to capture Hutch this encounter shows Hutch's adaptability and preparedness, he turned his basement into a sort of safe house for his family. This section is certainly impressive but it's what happens later that I enjoyed quite a bit. So out of the 10 or so goons that attack only 3 of them survive and it basically takes a surprise taser to take Hutch down so he gets dragged to a waiting car and shoved in the boot (trunk for Americans) and here's what I liked; they used the wee handle on the inside. Now this handle is for instances where you get trapped in the boot (I found this out from QI) and I feel it doesn't get used at all but this movie does where it allows Hutch to take a look outside to see where he is somewhat. This part also allows Hutch himself to deliver some exposition about what he did after causing the car to crash whilst he's taking a breather and he does so again once he gets back to his home and sends his family somewhere safe.

So after buying his workplace from his father in law (and giving his dickhead brother a good punch) he goes to meet Yulian but not before burning all of the money he was guarding and after his dad kills the two dudes that get sent to kill him. This interaction between Hutch and Yulian is actually an amazing one as these are two incredibly deadly individuals and it's also the first time they meet each other face to face and Hutch gives Yulian a choice; call it quits there or continue and potentially end up dead this leads to the following scene:

Now on my initial watches of this movie I couldn't tell what Hutch was hoping for in this scene but after watching it again he's definitely hoping that Yulian will turn down his offer of peace this leads to a car chase and eventually the final showdown in Hutch's workplace (which I think is a steel works) a workplace that has been Home Alone'd where he's joined by his father and his adopted brother what results is a less grounded encounter where a shitload of Russians get gunned down by three dudes or trigger various traps and die this leads to the final confrontation between Hutch and Yulian, Yulian has the advantage having not run out of ammo whereas Hutch, his dad and his brother had this leads Hutch to the plan of taping a claymore to some bulletproof glass and charging Yulian before triggering the claymore.

After this the cops arrive, his family make themselves scarce and he ends up finding a kitten that he decides to adopt. The movie ends up right back at the first scene where he's being interviewed by two detectives before cutting to three months later where he and his wife are looking at a new house.

So why recount pretty much the entire plot of the movie with relatively little of my opinion? Because I'm putting all my thoughts about it here (I don't really do this for movies remember?)

So first off I think it's fair to say I like this movie, actually I fucking love this movie. It has an enjoyable plot, enjoyable main characters, doesn't outstay its welcome and doesn't have some preachy message shoved into it. It reminds me of Die Hard a bit, only with a trained killing machine as the lead instead of a cop. It's incredibly fun watching Hutch shed his skin as a sheep and become a wolf again and even the comedic moments are well placed and well done and take good advantage of Bob Odenkirk's history as a more comedic actor. It also does a good job of charactersiation for example the burglars from the beginning are clearly just doing it because they're desperate and feel they have no other options, they're not evil just people trying to survive. Whereas Hutch's brother in law is just a dick and you don't feel any sympathy for him when he gets gut punched and told that Hutch doesn't care what he does. There's also Hutch's neighbour who also comes off as a bit of a dick, boasting about what he'd do if the burglars had chosen him and showing no sympathy about his father dying it makes the part where Hutch steals his car easier for the audience to swallow.

I'm not an expert on the cinematography but the action scenes are smooth with no sudden jump cuts or weird flailing camera, the action is believable and Hutch does take a pretty hefty beating and doesn't walk through his encounters unscathed which makes everything more believable and makes Hutch more human unlike in some other action movies where the main character takes no damage and walks away from every encounter unscathed except for maybe a few superficial cuts and bruises. Hutch gets fucked up in this movie and it's all the better for it.

However it's not all sunshine and rainbows for this movie, although my main complaints about it are pretty minor. The main one is Harry Mansall, Hutch's adopted brother, he doesn't get explained at all. In fact his name doesn't even get dropped (unless I missed it) at all during the movie so all I knew about him was that he was someone Hutch knew from his days as an auditor. Secondly is the Barber, who appears in one scene and then never again (unless you watch the bonus scenes) and the audience's only information about him is that he's an information broker (supposedly) but other than those two instances of not enough showing or telling the movie is definitely one of the better ones out there.

As for the sound track, it's fine. Movie soundtracks tend to be hit or miss for me and I feel they exist purely to just underpin what's happening on screen to either make it more humourous or more epic. I feel that a lot of them miss the mark and it's something the West in general doesn't really do too well. Although I do like What a Wonderful World playing (I think, all those songs sound the same to me) while Hutch is gunning down guards and burning money, it's utterly incongruent with what's happening on screen that I love it.

So yeah my first and probably only movie "review" I really don't do too well with this stuff as I usually stick movies on to be background noise whilst I read or play video games.