MIKE & NICK & NICK & ALICE: 3 ½ STARS. “a time travel flick about living in the moment.”
SYNOPSIS: A story of hitmen, romantic betrayal, a cannibal assassin and time travel, “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” now streaming on Disney+, is not your average underworld story.
CAST: Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro. Written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski.
REVIEW: A buddy comedy with a time travel twist, “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” delivers solid laughs and is a welcome return of Vince Vaughn’s vaunted comic timing.
The action begins with crime lord Sosa (Keith David) vowing to get revenge on the snitch who ratted out his son Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro), throwing him in prison for eight years. The wet work has been assigned to hitman Nick (Vince Vaughn), who has set up Quick Draw Mike (James Marsden), a rival in crime and for the attention of Alice (Eiza González), as the fall guy.
Into this deadly love triangle comes another assassin called The Baron who kills and eats his victims, betrayals, secrets and a chatty inventor named Symon (Ben Schwartz) whose time machine complicates an already complicated situation.
“Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” is a welcome return to the swaggerlicious, slick talking characters that made Vaughn an R-rated comedy fan favorite. He’s made comedies in the last few years, but his work in shows and films like “Bad Monkey,” “Nonnas” and “Easy’s Waltz” feel lowkey compared to the snappy delivery on display here.
Writer/director BenDavid Grabinski stages enough big shoot-‘em-up sequences for this to qualify as an action comedy, but he knows the secret sauce is in the chemistry between the cast.
In a dual role the above-mentioned Vaughn is fun, playing Present Nick as ruthless, ruled by anger and loyalty to Sosa while he softens Future Nick, presenting hm as a reflective guy with regret for the life he’s led. To paraphrase iconic slogan for Doublemint gum, Vaughn doubles his performance and doubles the fun.
Marsden brings a way with a punch and a punchline, while never losing the likability that characterizes his best work, like his arc as Liz Lemon’s boyfriend Criss Cross on “30 Rock” and “Enchanted’s” Prince Edward.
In her first big comedic role González isn’t given as much to do as Marsden and Vaughn but brings great comic timing and a dose of humanity to the absurd story.
Propelled by the cast’s chemistry, “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” is a time travel flick about living in the moment that doesn’t forget to have fun along the way.
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