Normal

If you can imagine a firearm kill, an explosion, or a knife-fight, chances are that Wheathely has packed into Normal— so bountiful are the action confrontations with various configurations of characters.

Normal is action-centric brain candy, with some pokes at timely social/political topics. It’s not that heavy, however, this film won’t change your life. It will allow you to relax into catharsis and put a smile on your face.

As long as Odenkirk’s grumpy sheriff has his coffee and mustache intact, he is the key to finding the perfect balance. No matter how many blows the film and he take, the joy in seeing him swing freely makes it all good, family fun.

Wheatley is such a strong technician that the film easily rises above its, well, normalcy, to become something much more distinct.

Many of its twists aren’t hard to see coming, and the movie sometimes lacks the scale needed for a sprawling battle. But a mustachioed Odenkirk with a shotgun is, by most metrics, more than enough firepower for any movie.

As Normal barrels toward its conclusion, it’s easy to look past the way it glosses over in-depth characterization.

Wheatley’s hyperbolic set pieces feel perfunctory rather than euphoric or hilariously bombastic.

This is an absolutely unhinged suburban action movie that genuinely hits different.

Normal has some fun ideas, but lacks the energy to follow through with them. A divorced sheriff gets relocated to small town Normal, and sees a chance for a peaceful life. Unfortunately, there's a dark, sneaky twist going around, that'll lead to action, hijinks, and death. It's basically "Hot Fuzz" combined with Bob Odenkirk's "Nobody." Normal is cribbing some great ideas from films like Hot Fuzz, such as tightly weaving setups and payoffs throughout. Most every line of dialogue is connected somehow. It can come off as inorganic at times, though, because why WOULD we be talking about this if it weren't important somehow? Even the fights that break out should be ridiculous and fun, but seem somehow mellow. Maybe it's how bad of a shot everybody is? Maybe the performances needed to be hammier, lean into the cheese? Maybe it's the editing, could be snappier? Overall, it's fun, but doesn't leave much of an impact.

Normal is a film about a town called Normal where things don't seem to very Normal. However, the film is actually a very Normal action film. Bob Odenkirk is very fitting as the main lead and Interim Sheriff of Normal. The visuals, music and action don't really do anything beyond plain old Normal action films. It's just an enjoyable Normal popcorn time film

Fargo and John Wick meets woke propaganda. Starts intriguing but quickly becomes totally unoriginal. Over the top violent film that has little of importance to say despite dialing it up to 11.

The first 36 minutes are quite well done, and the plot is solid. However, the film completely devolves into senseless, tedious violence. Bob Odenkirk plays the "nobody" character we are familiar with—and he plays it very well—but the character is the same, just dressed up as a sheriff. Beside him, some of his colleagues appear grotesquely ridiculous in their attempts at acting. Unfortunately, not worth watching.