★★★
A detective recruits his Uber driver into an unexpected night of adventure.
Classification: 15
Reminiscent of the action comedies of yore, Stuber is a film that puts all of its chips into a humorous premise with the star power and chemistry of its leads and not much else. While Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista have great eccentric chemistry that allows them to play off each other's strengths as performers, the script and rest of the supporting cast leave much to be desired from their absurd adventure. The story beats and conclusions are quite predictable with the majority of the set pieces just being Nanjiani's character of Stu being inadvertently involved with Bautista's Victor's revenge mission against a drug kingpin. The two leads definitely elevate the material from sheer charisma but nothing about Michael Dowse's direction takes Stuber beyond the initial intrigue of its premise.
Stuber takes influences from films with similar storylines such as Taxi and Collateral and creates a strange bastardisation between the two while adding the modern influence of ride-sharing apps. The script initially creates a setup and motivation for the two characters to need each other and justify Stu's uneasy cooperation with Victor's behaviour; Stu needs a five-star review to maintain his Uber driver rating and Victor has compromised vision due to lasic surgery. Soon however these justifications wear off as Victor just takes Stu hostage and forces him to participate in the violence and carnage that seems to be following him from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Dowse and the script just seem to lose interest in keeping the story being the driving force and just focus on locations for Nanjiani and Bautista to riff off each other.
That decision while harming the overall film does pay off in some form as Nanjiani and Bautista make Stuber so entertaining. Their characters are working off of stereotypes the two actors are known for playing but their combined energy working together makes them a riot on screen. Bautista's performance is a great work of physical comedy as his hulking form stumbles and crashes through the scenes with immense power which then is put to work with his fight scenes with various goons and the great Iko Uwais of The Raid fame. Nanjiani's neuroses cement this odd couple relationship as his stress over his finances, love life and condition of his leased electric car creates amusing recurring gags through the runtime. The best sequence of the film is when the two characters unleash their fury towards each other in an empty sports department store as the cathartic violence forges the bond between character and actor.
It's a great inspired pairing that are let down by a supporting cast given basically nothing to work with in the script. The female characters are regulated to estranged daughter, unrequited love, police captain, and dead partner, now while Stu and Victor also have clichéd traits both actors are allowed to heighten the character through the intensity of the performance. Everyone else needs to play the straight man to this comedy duo which makes the world of Stuber actually quite boring, Dowse does take the characters to some interesting locations but the characters within them aren't anything more than set dressing. This lack of detail in the supporting cast is disappointing as it could have made the overall story of Stuber more interesting as the two characters explore the criminal underworld of Los Angeles encountering strange bizarre characters. There was potential in the beginning when Victor and Stu visit a male strip club and Stu ends up getting relationship advice from a stripper dressed like a founding father but it quickly divulges to standard tropes. Even Iko Uwais is basically delegated to voiceless villain with no personality besides a colourful jumpsuit, the complete lack of character development beyond Stu and Victor just makes the story feel like an unnecessary component at times.
The action of Stuber is a mixed bag while Bautista punching henchman and shooting bad guys is always fun there are issues in the execution of his fight scenes with Uwais. The shaky-cam style actually makes these sequences very confusing and doesn't properly display the talent that Uwais and Bautista possess. Both the opening and ending action scenes suffer from this creating a strange bookend effect of dizzying, difficult camera work, it's possible the filmmakers are trying to hide imperfections in the choreography with harsh cuts and close-ups but considering the talent of the two performers, it is unlikely. That is, however, the only sore thumb of the action as nearly everything else, from Stu and Victor's own fight scenes, a shootout in an animal hospital and a thrilling car chase set to "Come Sail Away" by Styx.
Stuber has its issues but still delivers an entertaining adventure despite its predictable story and weak character development. Michael Dowse puts all of the movies chips on Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista's chemistry and it pays off in spades as their neurotic intensity creates great moments of action-comedy. Nothing particularly clever is done with the premise of Stuber beyond slight adjustments to storylines of other films so its a shame to see the modern culture of ride-sharing not utilised to its full comedic potential. In the end, it's funny and strange, and most likely you're only interested in seeing it stems from the two leads and not much else so Stuber delivers there.
It's the Nanjiani and Bautista show, and you're just along for the ride.
Director: #MichaelDowse
Cast: #KumailNanjiani, #DaveBautista, #IkoUwais, #NatalieMorales, #BettyGilpin, #JimmyTatro, #MiraSorvino, #KarenGillan
Release Date: July 12th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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