Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler, Lena Headey Written by: Derek Kolstad, Bob Odenkirk Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Apparently, after flipping the script with the 2021 surprise action hit Nobody, Bob Odenkirk is now our new Liam Neeson (who himself was at one point our new Steven Seagal, Charles Bronson, or whoever your favorite perennial ass-kicker might be). Fine enough, we always need a few guys to crank out variations on men just trying to mind their own business when trouble finds them. Odenkirk once again proves he’s fit to carry the mantel.
Here he plays Ulysses Richardson (yep, Ulysses), serving as interim sheriff of Normal, Minnesota, after the previous sheriff’s sudden demise. Ulysses can sense things are a little off in Normal, but he’s not looking to dig too deep... until the bullets start flying.
Smashing together elements of Fargo, Rebel Ridge, and John Wick (all better movies to be sure), writers Derek Kolstad (the mind behind both John Wick and Nobody) and Odenkirk craft a fun, breezy shoot em’ up that never takes itself too seriously and is smart enough to get the hell out of dodge in 90 minutes.
It helps to have director Ben Wheatley behind the camera, who knows a thing or two about this type of material (he directed Free Fire and Meg 2: The Trench). He’s also not afraid to get a little dark, bloody, and macabre—this is after all the same guy who directed one of the dreariest movies of all time, Kill List.
While Normal doesn’t quite know what to do with all its characters or where to go in the third act, at its deliriously chaotic peak it does recall the best derivative crime movies of the 90s; the ones you would catch on cable or video and, for 5 or 10 exhilarating minutes, forget you weren’t watching the real thing.