Mike in desperate need of wit
There’s a good idea rattling around in BenDavid Grabinski’s Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. Before enduring this surprisingly dull exercise, I didn’t realize I needed a time travel-hitman-buddy-movie-dramedy. Ironically, after sitting through this slog of a movie, that need remains.
Even after my plot summary you may need to chart it out with pen and paper but I’ll do my best. Here we go: Nick and Mike (Vince Vaughn and James Marsden) are hitmen for crime kingpin Sosa (Keith David). Mike is sleeping with Nick’s wife, Alice (Eiza Gonzalez). Mike is aware of this and has been dispatched to get rid of Nick because Sosa thinks he ratted out his son, Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro), who’s just been released from prison.
The twist is, that there are two Nicks, one from the future and one in the “present.” Seems that Symon (Ben Schwartz), an inventor they lent money to for a secret project, has invented a time machine. Nick stumbles upon this, six months in the future, when he goes to collect on the loan. Ruing his actions on the night he was to kill his partner, he goes back in time to engineer a different outcome. Upon doing so, he not only has to stop his other self from carrying out the hit but must deal with Sosa and his minions, who eventually decide to take matters into their own hands.
The premise is quite clever and ripe with parodic possibilities as well as meta commentary. Inexplicably, Grabinski lets these opportunities die on the vine, too often opting for sequences of uninspired gun play or needless narrative tangents. His use of flashbacks, though vital to fleshing out the characters’ pasts, hobble the pacing of the story. Just when we start to get a handle on the twisty-turney nature of the plot and the film begins to build a head of steam, these segues stop it in its tracks. Compounding this is a superfluous scene with Stephen Root as a ruthless enforcer which, despite the character actor’s presence, stops the film dead in its tracks.
Were it not for the veteran cast, Mike would have been insufferable. Vaughn’s trademark gentle condescension is put to good use here as future Nick explains the time travel shenanigans. Give the actor credit for handling numerous exposition dumps with a degree of style and wit, while providing subtle and effective differences in his dual role. Gonzalez has always been more than just another pretty face and I’ve been waiting for her to get a role where she really shines. She displays a comedic flair here that needs to be exploited in a vehicle of that sort immediately. Marsden remains the reliable “almost leading man,” a reassuring presence, effortlessly exuding charm and sharp timing. He shines in the action scenes, proving he needs an action film to star in.
Frankly, I loved these three together and was wishing they were in a better movie. Having directed only a short, a television episode and one feature, Grabinski simply doesn’t have the chops to pull this off. The material requires a more tongue-in-cheek tone, while the characters should be delivering their dialogue at a rat-a-tat-tat Howard Hawks-like gait. As it is, there’s surprising lack of energy in the interactions between the principals.
Like so many of his clueless contemporaries, Grabinski thinks louder is better and that if he can execute numerous action sequences that makes him a filmmaker. That may be enough for some, but it certainly doesn’t make him a storyteller. Mike is another example of what happens when you focus on bombast rather than intimacy. Streaming on Hulu.
Cut from same bloody cloth – Ready is witty, Kill repulsive
On the rare occasion when movies with similar plots are made, the studios involved usually do viewers the courtesy of staggering their release to keep confusion at a minimum. In 1997, Dante’s Peak was released on Feb. 7, while Volcano came out on April 25. A year later, Deep Impact was unleashed on May 8, while Armageddon began its box office assault on July 1.
I suspect New Line Cinema is hoping to bamboozle horror film fans by releasing their vile They Will Kill You, one week after Searchlight Pictures’ Ready or Not 2: Here I Come has hit theaters. While each has the exact same plot, the latter is done with a degree of wit and intelligence while the former is a lazy exercise that mistakes gore with being clever and funny. Distinguishing between the two is vital to avoid multiplex confusion.
Those who scoff at horror films will likely see no difference in the similar movies, yet the tone each strikes determines the success of one and the complete failure of the other. Granted, it’s a fine line, especially when you’re dealing with scenes involving exploding bodies and decapitations. Both are acquired tastes, and yet these moments can be delivered in an arch, ironic manner that generates the darkest of humor, and at times, provide pointed social commentary.
The only discernible difference between the movies is that Ready does have something to say. It’s message of eating the rich is no different than it was in the previous franchise entry, but feels timelier. Having survived a bizarre wedding night game in which she was hunted by her new, 1% in-laws, Grace (Samara Weaving) finds herself back at square one. Seems her wiping out the Le Domas family has left the high seat of a satanic cult vacant. As a result, members from four other immensely powerful clans have convened to see who will now be its leader.
You guessed it, the game is the same but for Grace, the stakes have been raised as her sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton) has been forced to play as well. (Not sure if a third sister named either Hope or Charity exist. Likely have to wait until part three to find out.) Taking place on the grounds of a massive resort, the bickering siblings are set loose, required to survive until dawn. However, if someone in any of the competing families kill Grace, they win accede to the demonic throne.
The script by directing and writing team Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett is a witty exercise, its characters clearly drawn, the story imaginative and the tone mischievous. Winking at the audience throughout, they populate the film with a rogues’ gallery of elites who are so over-the-top deplorable, we can’t wait to see each meet a grisly end. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy stand out as bickering, backstabbing twins Ursula and Titus Danforth, while Dan Beirne as the smarmy Kip and Maia Jae as the vengeful Francesca make the most of their moments. Elijah Wood shines as well as the lawyer who makes sure all the rules are followed.
To be sure, the violence is graphic and often. However, the overt, cartoonish manner in which it’s rendered and the ironic circumstances that often occur to cause it elicit hearty laughs rather than gasps of disgust. Again, this is not everyone’s cup of tea, yet if movies of this sort are in your wheelhouse, Ready checks all the bloody boxes.
On the other hand, Kill is an exercise in repulsive repetition that gleefully wallows in its violence, its sophomoric tone relegating it to grindhouse status. The troubled teenage boys this is pitched to will not be bothered by its lack of nuance nor the fact that the script is a vacuous pastiche.
Zazie Beetz and Myha’la are Asia and Marie, the sisters in peril, the enclave they must escape is a one-time New York hotel that is now a condominium and they, too, must survive the night, as these devil worshipers need a human sacrifice for their daybreak bacchanal. The twist here is these Satan worshipers are immortal, so no matter how often Asia hacks, slices, shoots or cuts them in half, they always regenerate and attack once more.
Patricia Arquette, going out of her way to prove the Oscar curse does exist, is on hand as the manager of the building, while Heather Graham and Tom Felton also appear as soulless tenants who don’t know how to stay dead. Capable performers all, they’re given little to do but repeatedly look aghast when they’re slain again and again. The script by Alex Litvak and director Kirill Sokolov dispenses with backstory for any of them, preferring instead to set up the premise and jump right into the action.
The attempts at humor when heads start to roll fall flat, the “jokes” all obvious, their execution ham-fisted. As a result, the film’s blood-letting, which is too frequent and repetitious comes off as disturbing and gratuitous. There’s a sort of “Hey, look at this! Ain’t it cool!” vibe to the movie that dooms it from the start. Sokolov overlooks the fact that the viewer has to love or hate those being slayed for any of these moments to have an impact. His insistence on constantly displaying his Asian action film influences while drenching his sets in viscera, all of it devoid of wit, makes Kill a tedious, repulsive experience. Both in Theaters.
Game cast puts best foot forward in Lethal
Girl power is trending at the movies the week. In addition to pairs of sibling demon hunters in Ready or Not 2 and They Will Kill You, and the high school coven in Forbidden Fruits, Amazon Prime has Pretty Lethal, featuring a troupe of butt-kicking ballerinas. Though this collection of movies does not signal a renaissance in exploitation flicks, you’re excused for making that assumption. The best of this quartet – this film and Ready -acknowledge their sordid roots with a wink and a nod to the audience, letting the audience know all involved are in on the joke.
A tribute to strength and tenacity of ballerinas everywhere, “Lethal” wastes little time in putting its deadly quintet into action. Led by their instructor Miss Thorna (Lydia Leonard), the five senior members of Hollywood’s Sunset Dance Academy are off to Budapest for a prestigious dance competition. However, their travels are delayed when their plane is diverted and they’re forced to hire a VW bus to go the rest of the way. The plot dictates this breakdown as well, leaving the troupe stranded and ultimately seeking refuge at the remote Teremok Inn.
Of course, they have no way of knowing this is a nefarious watering hole for local crime bosses, one of which takes exception when Throna rebuffs his advances and promptly shoots her in the head. The owner of the Teremok, Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman), a former ballerina with a tragic past, knows this will bring unwanted attention to her establishment and puts the dancers in hiding. Buckling to pressure from higher ups, she realizes the only way to keep this under wraps is to kill them and sends her lackies to do the job.
Were it not for the convincing performances and camaraderie of the actresses playing the five dancers, the film would have been dead on arrival. However, Maddie Ziegler as Bones, Lana Condor as Princess, Avantika as Grace, and Millicent Simmonds and Iris Apatow as sisters Chloe and Zoe are up the task, both comedically and physically. Though initially on their heels, the girls rally when they realize that with a tweak here or there, their rigorous training can be put to lethal use. Before you know it, they’ve fashioned razors to the end of their pointe shoes and with a flurry of plies and pirouettes, they’re slicing and dicing every bad guy thrown their way.
Director Vicky Jewson handles the action scenes with aplomb, holding shots longer than many of her contemporaries while the editing is not so frantic that we can’t follow the action. Kate Freund’s script could use some trimming as the second act sags badly. But her characters are distinctive and appealing, their contrasting personalities making for genuine tension between them as well as the occasional laugh.
Thurman, in a role in which she could have phoned it in, pulls out all the stops as Kasimer. Tough as nails on the outside, she harbors a Miss Havisham complex, ruing the circumstances that led to her dancing career being cut short. When she emerges in the third act in full ballerina regalia, eyebrows etched on her kabuki-like make-up, it’s an unexpectedly poignant Norma Desmond moment that cuts through the chaos that surrounds her.
Clocking in under 90 minutes, Lethal is efficiently executed. This unexpectedly enjoyable, albeit, bloody time-filler is better than expected and, if nothing else, permanently lays to rest the notion that dancers of this sort are delicate and fragile. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
This article appears in March 26 – April 1, 2026.
