Stuber * (2019, Dave Bautista, Kumail Nanjiani, Iko Uwais, Mira Sorvino) – Movie Review

The contrived crime action comedy Stuber is loud, brash, fast paced and dynamic, but dismayingly disagreeable and unappealing, violent and vulgar. The action is violent and the comedy is vulgar.

An Uber driver comedy is, marginally, a good idea, but this film doesn’t make the best of it.

Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani are OK as bantering bromancers. They are not the best buddy-buddy team, but they will do. Dave plays cop Vic Manning, unexpectedly blinded by a laser eye op, who has to hire an Uber driven by Stu (Nanjiani) to take down the bad guys bloodthirsty terrorist Oka Tedjo and murderously corrupt cop Angie McHenry (Iko Uwais, Mira Sorvino).

If the men’s roles are just about reasonably drawn, the women’s parts are abysmally written and there is a strong misogynist whiff and well as a gleefully racist one. Sorvino, Natalie Morales and Karen Gillan are all wasted in nothing roles. Is casting Kumail Nanjiani as the Uber driver really a good idea? It is certainly a lazy idea, and so is casting Bautista as a rogue cop. It might have worked better the other way round with Bautista as the driver. The blinded by a laser eye op idea gets old almost immediately and lasts almost the whole movie, desperately in search of laughs.

There are some funny gags here and there, but most of the jokes get driven relentlessly into the ground, either through repetition or staleness. Once again, more is less. Bautista keeps calling ‘Stu’ ‘Steve’ for no reason at all, and then when the bromance gets hot, finally calls him ‘Stu’. Heavy sentimentality rears its ugly head at the end when Vic hugs Stu and cries! Yes, really!

The scary, heavy-weight Bautista is a more likeable, credible performer than Nanjiani, who does way too much silly eye-rolling and silly voices. Bautista has a good way with both the action and the comedy. He’s in the Dwayne Johnson class, only fresher.

Still, the film is short at 90 minutes, as well as nasty and brutish. The blame is with writer Tripper Clancy not with director Michael Dowse, who does what he can with the lazy and lame material.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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