Directed by Ilya Naishuller
Written by Derek Kolstad
The John Wick films introduced audiences to a genre of gritty personal revenge shoot ’em up style film that people didn’t know they were missing in theaters. With three films in that franchise, it was time to branch out with a same setup/style film but with a seemingly “regular” guy. In walks Bob Odenkirk. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of the shifty lawyer, Saul Goodman, in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul TV series. One writer utilizing the same formula that made the John Wick series great…guy lives simple life until a sequence of unfortunate events drives him to seek revenge on those who wronged him. Instead of a man losing his dog as in John Wick, here we have a kitty cat bracelet and some internal rage issues on display which lends to some oddly humorous moments. This film is somewhat a combination of John Wick meets the 1993 film with Michael Douglas, Falling Down.
Here comes the spoilers.
Hutch Mansell lives a boring life of routine. Wake up, make coffee, morning run, go to work, and back home to a family that barely acknowledges his existence. One night his house is broken into and during the robbery he stops short of attacking the robbers as he sees their gun is unloaded. He lets them go much to the dismay of his family and the police who take the report of the robbery. The next day his daughter is looking for her kitty cat bracelet and he realizes the robbers may have taken this during the robbery. He leaves in the night to meet his father who is a retired police officer, and takes his father’s badge and gun and goes around town tracking down the robbers as one had a unique tattoo on their arm. He finds and threatens them to find the kitty cat bracelet, but soon realizes they are a desperate couple trying to steal money for their sick baby. Frustrated he leaves them and takes a bus home. This late night bus crosses paths with a wrecked SUV full of hoodlums who board the bus and start harassing a young woman. He uses this opportunity to unleash his pent up rage and beats them all brutally. Unluckily for him, but lucky for the plot one of these hoodlums is the younger brother of a Russian Drug Lord. The Drug Lord, Yulian, is also holding the Russian mobs cash in a sort-of treasury called an Obshak. This is important later.
Seeking revenge for his brother he sends his top men after Hutch. Hutch puts his family in a safe room, and almost dispatches all the men until he is eventually tased and taken away for torture in the trunk of a car. Hutch manages to escape using a fire extinguisher and the car wrecks killing everyone but Hutch. He returns home and sends his family away while he burns his house down to get rid of all evidence. Hutch breaks into the Obshak and burns all the money enraging Yulian to pursue him back to the factory where he has traps setup for them. His father and brother show up to assist him and they kill all of Yulian’s men and he kills Yulian with a claymore mine as they are out of ammo.
This film hits so many beats just right and it is difficult to say at what point the film could have been better besides giving us more action and more Hutch beating people to death. Therefore this film gets a Writing a Movie ‘RIGHT’ review from me. I would love to see a prequel story showing Hutch’s life before he got married. Perhaps him still working as an assassin while dating his future wife and trying not to get her killed. The humor coming from her never realizing how close to death they were the entire film. That would be a great action romantic comedy.
Thanks for reading Writing Movie ‘WRONGS’.