When was the last time you saw a time travel movie and thought, “That’s new!”? Yes, it’s been a while for me too. That’s why I’m so excited about Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, the new crime comedy of the popular gang. Hulu on Friday.
If you’re like me and feel the need to get out in front of the TV to goofy ultraviolence, I suggest you give this movie a shot. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it includes all sorts of genre references in a fun, self-aware crime comedy that, at times, feels reminiscent of ride movies. Quentin Tarantino‘s coattails about two to three decades ago.
I say it in the same breath as this: If John Wick it was a comedy full of space-chewing silliness, it would be Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice.
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James Marsden, Eiza González and Vince Vaughn star in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice.
Vince Vaughn, James Marsden and Eiza González star in the film, written and directed by Ben-David Grabinski. It follows a crime boss named Mike (Marsden) who is more than a gangster. Nick (Vaughn), his true partner in crime, convinces him to do one last job — and it’s his target, Nick.
But the Nick of today, not the Nick of the future. I’ll explain a bit more.
You see, Mike is a victim of circumstance, and these particular circumstances have marked him as the person responsible for putting Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro), the son of the mob boss, Sosa (Keith David), in jail.
Sosa is such a vengeful rioter that when he tells Nick that he’s hired cannibals named Barron to take out Mike, the joy on his face is almost contagious — or it was, until I remembered that Mike is the guy we’re looking for. Killing people and eating them is very unpleasant.
Keith David stars in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice.
Mike is working on borrowed time. But, so is Nick. Because, like I said above, this is a time travel movie and Nick is from the future.
Now, I’m not going to waste a few minutes explaining how time travel works in this movie — because Grabinski didn’t bother to explain it. Honestly, that’s one of the narrative details I enjoyed the most. A movie like this shouldn’t require much brain power to process all that nonsense, though.
The point is, Nick got into a time machine and went back half a year to correct the worst decisions he made, and do his best to correct those mistakes. And he must understand something in today’s version of himself; something he asked Mike to do in a fight with chloroform.
Oh, and one more thing: Mike is dating Nick’s wife, Alice (González). Because what’s better than a quirky love triangle storyline introduced in this gang survival tale? I can’t think of anything yet, so let’s move on.
I guess you could consider Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice a sci-fi movie, which it is Project Hail Mary foreign film. The time travel trope here and the original trope in Ryan Gosling’s blockbuster both inform these stories without overshadowing them, making for a delicious icing on each proverbial story cake, or something.
This clash of gangs is a familiar scene, wrapped in something new and exciting that details time travel. Grabinski was also behind Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim series, which used time travel as a plot device for everything, showing that the man knows a thing or two about subverting audience expectations with a subtle twist of the script.
You can do whatever it takes to bring a movie like this to life and still falter if the talent on screen is subpar. Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice boast a strong cast that casts aside those concerns and reintroduces Vince Vaughn’s comedic style to the movie world. And we get double that, considering the fact that he’s posing with himself in some of these scenes.
Two Vince Vaughns are better than one.
I’m not saying he’s been lost — Vaughn has been doing his thing on Apple TV’s Bad Monkey and previously starred opposite Larry David’s comedic genius on Curb Your Enthusiasm. But after his dark, violent streak in movies like Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete, it’s nice to see him at his sardonic best.
His confrontation with Marsden is where the film shines the most. It’s always great to see Marsden on screen, too. Here, his natural charm is on full display, and he gets to flex his comedic muscles, to boot. And then there’s González, who I first discovered on Netflix 3 Physical Problem. As Alice, she’s intimidating and holds her own against Vaughn, Marsden and, uh, Vaughn.
Ben Schwartz and Stephen Root come and go in memorable roles that help color the edges of this already strange story world. Honestly, the characters alone are a good reason to tune in to this show.
But then again, if you’re like me and miss out on movie comedy — because movie comedy isn’t really made — it’s too volatile, this one’s for you. If you’re wax nostalgic about the funny shoot-em-ups of the mid-’00s, like, the movie Shoot ‘Em Up, this is for you.
This is not Oscar material and would not have drawn me to the movie theater if it had been released theatrically. That is, if, like me, you appreciate your Alf once Gilmore Girls references delivered and needle-dropping classics from the late ’90s and early ’00s, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is definitely for you.
