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.

Handling it all with a detached, shrugging sense of doom, Odenkirk proves the right man for the job at hand in both of the film’s two tonally separate halves, and he’s supported by a colorful cast.

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.

Without spoiling Normal’s central twist, suffice it to say that it leads to a lot of gunplay that allows Wheatley to off one character after another in violent, sometimes explosive fashion. It’s more wearying than shocking, but not fatally so thanks to a brisk pace, a willingness to shift gears with little warning, and, again, Odenkirk’s humane performance.

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

Normal is a funny and unapologetically violent bloodbath of a movie. It’s grounded by another winning turn by newfangled action movie hero Bob Odenkirk, who adequately fills the role of the unstoppable geezer with a sense of humor. The movie is skimpy, but I enjoyed it for what it is. Recommended. detroitcineaste

This John Wickian wannabe has a little more nice ness to it than the typical shot, stabb and mayme movie. The first one half is funny and thoughtful and I would give it an A or 95. The second half with all it's mayem and loose plot believability I'd give it a C-. Still an entertaining fair.

Good time if you like this sort of thing. Silly fun plot with over the top violence

Well, we have "Liam Neeson movies," I guess now we'll have "Bob Odenkirk movies" too. I can't begrudge the guy the right to earn a living, but this is a far cry from "Better Call Saul."