Stuber

Stübermensch

Stuber
USA 2019 Directed by Michael Dowse
UK cinema release print

Warning: Slight spoilers about the opening sequence.

Stuber is probably best described as a modern variant on those action comedy team ups which were popular in the 1980s like Running Scared. It’s also not a movie I would normally bother to go and see at a cinema (or any home format either, to be honest) but this one appealed to me because I have got a lot of time for one of the two main stars of the movie, David Bautista, who I think is a very good but underused actor who deserves much more from Hollywood casting agencies, as far as I’m concerned (check him out in Hotel Artemis, reviewed here, if you don’t believe me).

Here he co-stars with comic actor Kumail Nanjiani playing an Uber driver called Stu who has to ferry Bautista’s tough guy cop character Vic around because he’s just recovering from an operation on his eyes and can’t see very well... but it happens to coincide with a hot lead on a villain he’s been chasing for the last two years. Not to mention the opening of his daughter’s art gallery show and an opportunity for Stu to get together with the girl of his dreams, if only he can get away from driving Vic around and becoming embroiled in a web of crime and violence.

And... it’s not bad actually. Nanjiani is great as the put upon Uber driver who has to kill and kick bad guy ass due to being placed in life threatening situations when all he really needs to be is... somewhere else. And Bautista gets to show off his comic side (which he did very well as Drax The Destroyer in the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies) and basically does an all round good job with his character. Also, although it’s essentially a ‘comedy thriller’, the director doesn’t skimp on the action sequences and delivers, along with the writers and performers (yeah... and everyone else), a movie with some hard hitting, at times almost brutal, action sequences which, although the stakes are more personal, don’t dilute the emotional pull of the characters.

This is perhaps best demonstrated in a wonderful, extended opening action flashback sequence where Bautista and his then partner, played by his Guardians Of The Galaxy co-star, Amy Pond herself, the mighty Karen Gillan, are after the main villain of the piece, Oka, played by Iko Uwais of The Raid movies (reviewed here and here). Now, yes, it was a bit obvious right from the start that the fate of Gillan’s character was that she was going to get fridged to give Bautista’s character extra motivation for the rest of the movie but, even so, she does get some good screen time in this opening section and I would love to see her taking a starring role in this kind of action mayhem movie soon. Like Bautista, Hollywood needs to be putting her in more stuff.

The film takes its time to build up on the love/hate relationship between Stu and Vic and there’s some nice moments of the old but well loved cliché of ‘character building under duress’ scenes that are a staple of these kinds of ‘grudging buddy’ movies. There are also times when you feel that the death of one or other of the main characters seems almost inevitable and I appreciated that the director was able to ratchet up that kind of tension within the framework of a movie like this. It’s rare in movies these days that you actually get to the point where you genuinely think you may be about to lose one of the main protagonists.

I also appreciated that, staggeringly, the director was actually able to surprise me a couple of times too. For example, a main ‘bad guy’ who is revealed near the end is someone I would normally have seen coming a mile off so... goodness knows how this film managed to distract me enough that I didn’t see it coming. Ditto for a minor revelation in the last scene of the movie too...  not that I’m going to say anything about that here.

Another thing that impressed me was the exploration and long term relevance of a scene which could have been just another throw away moment but which was given a heck of a lot more gravitas than it would in pretty much any other movie out there. This is a scene where a roomful of minor criminals, finding Vic at their door, have gotten rid of their drug evidence by feeding a load of packets of drugs to their dog. When Vic figures this out, he’s as much concerned about getting the dog to a vet and making sure it’s okay as he is with getting the information he’s after and I appreciated this and was also pleased with a follow on with the dog in the closing scenes of the movie too. This was a classy thing to do and certainly, in terms of effective movie making, endeared me to Vic even more.

And... okay, a short review for this one but that’s because I couldn’t find anything really bad to say about it, in all honesty (plus I had a terrible accident walking home from the cinema and the whole of my face and body is just one big bruise and I can barely move... which kinda takes some of the fun out of the writing process to be fair). Stuber is a pretty nice but, perhaps, not so significant action comedy with some marvellous performances from a director who, I’m pretty sure judging from some sequences in this, would be good as an all out action director too. Not something I’d probably bother with again but I think that this one should hit well with audiences, if the publicity machine does its job and people turn out for it. I had a good time with this one and am happy to recommend it to people who like these kinds of escapades. It’s a fun little film and I’d probably be happy to watch a sequel to it... although I don’t expect that to happen, in all honesty.