Review of Stuber (2019) by Davrosdaleks1 — 14 Jul 2019

The action comedy Stuber has Dave Bautista as a cop whose gone rogue when his case is being transferred. His sight's recovering from eye laser surgery, so he commandeers Kumail Nanjiani's uber drive in order to pursue his enemy. A strained premise, yes, but it kinda works in what is a generally entertaining film.

Bautista's the tough guy and Nanjiani's the sensitive guy. The whole opposites working together trope here is pretty worn and predictable. (There are in fact several tropes in this.) However, there are moments where the characters work pretty well. They lean so hard into Bautista being an over-the-top Dirty Harry character and Nanjiani being almost aggressively defensive in his "woke" ways that the characters make a place for themselves. Their discussions of their differences do provide some of the better moments, including one slightly more serious discussion about Bautista's character's childhood that is really well done.

The jokes that work are pretty much 50/50. Nanjiani has a lot of failed lines in the first act when he is being introduced. He gets better when he starts interacting with the chaos that ensues. I don't think this is Nanjiani's best work. Here he has do to rapid fire jokes, and I think he does better with slower-paced delivery. Bautista on the other hand: no notes; good job.

For a comedy, there are some above-the-call camera shots here. Violence is entertainingly over-the-top. Not There is one kill that is pretty memorable.

There is one civilian murder that I found gratuitous. It just didn't feel necessary to the plot.

This movie is fun, but it's lightweight. I recommend you see this, but you don't need to see it immediately or pay too much.