Review: Stuber

An odd couple is formed when circumstances force gruff cop Vic (Dave Bautista) to take an Uber driven by nerdy Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) in order to track down the killer (Iko Uwais) of his partner (a thankfully brief Karen Gillan). All Stu wants is to get the hell over to his drunk and frankly not very nice crush’s (Betty Gilpin) place to have sex, and now he’s stuck playing chauffeur on a police operation. Mira Sorvino plays Vic’s senior officer, whilst Natalie Morales is Vic’s daughter. Jimmy Tatro plays an obnoxious ‘dude bro’ co-worker at Stu’s day job at a sporting goods store.

 

One of the better buddy cop/odd couple action comedies of late (faint praise?), this 2019 film from director Michael Dowse (the OK sports comedy “Goon”) and screenwriter Tripper Clancy (co-writer of a couple of German films with Til Schweiger) gets a lot of help from the likeable and funny Kumail Nanjiani. Proving that he can at least eek out two films using his basic awkward milquetoast schtick after “The Big Sick” and now this, Nanjiani is basically a milquetoast Eddie Murphy from “48HRS”. How milquetoast-y is this guy? He cries and freaks out after shooting a gun for the first time, and his idea of playing ‘bad cop’ is to pretend to write embarrassing things to a suspect’s Twitter account. It’s funny stuff. Also funny is the collection of awful passengers he gets as an Uber driver. It’s an old joke, and Nanjiani’s casting is probably an ethnic stereotype, but the actor’s innate likeability – and comedic chops – keep you onside throughout. Former WWE Superstar Dave ‘Batista’ Bautista holds up his end, both comedically and in the action department. He’s one of the better and more astute wrestlers-turned-actors for sure. They’re an amusing odd couple, I especially loved Nanjiani referring to Bautista as ‘Douche Lundgren’, and Bautista gets into a nice rumble at the beginning with “The Raid” dynamo Iko Uwais. It’s quite a violent film throughout, actually.

 

Although Oscar winner Mira Sorvino gives a distractingly awful performance and Natalie Morales is a bit too old for her role (and looks even older), most of the supporting cast are fun. Steve Howey is well-cast as an amiable himbo, and an actor named Jimmy Tatro makes for an amusing douchebag dude bro. Betty Gilpin is on the sidelines for much of the film, but she does get to utter the funniest and most random line perhaps in all of cinematic history invoking the title character in “Simon Birch”.

 

Conceptually it’s as old as the hills, and the ‘surprise’ villain is no surprise at all, but this is formula done well. Like “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” it entertains just enough, even if you probably won’t remember much of it afterwards. The two stars are terrific, with Nanjiani showing that he’s got at least two films in him, albeit using the same persona. It’s also a thankfully brief film: It gets in, does its job, and leaves. I did find that the profanity was a bit too inorganically frequent and Iko Uwais’ immense fighting talents are completely wasted in a tiny role, but I liked this one overall.

 

Rating: B-