Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

R

Although its title may sound as if it’s the spiritual sequel/reboot to 1969’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, the exploration of sexual experimentation is one of the genres this film doesn’t cover.

It is a quirky, kooky, comedy crime caper, with a sci-fi thread running through it, that has not one but two Vince Vaughn’s trying to change their future.

boom reviews Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Wait, you're getting paid for TWO roles???!!!

Getting ready for a secret rendezvous with Alice (Eiza González) is ‘Quick draw’ Mike (James Marsden). He’s a henchman for crime boss Nick (Vaughn), but he’s tired of all the killing and that, and wants to quit. The situation is made more awks by the fact that Alice is married to Nick.

Just as he’s waiting for Alice’s arrival at the hotel room, there’s a knock at the door – it’s Nick. He needs Mike’s help urgently, so leaves with him. Nick explains they have to grab someone from a house, but needs Mike to do it on his own.

Mike feels like he has no other choice, so agrees to do it, but when he leaves Nick in the car and walks up to the house and knocks, he’s perplexed by the person who answers it – Nick.

What follows is a curious and dangerous plot to save someone’s life – his own – as Future Nick (Vaughn) attempts to right some wrongs in his past.

boom reviews Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Sorry Favreau, your just money anymore.

This is the second film to be directed by BenDavid Grabinski, and it’s quite a doozy. The American director, who also wrote the script, throws everything and the kitchen sink into a crazy plot; not all of it sticks, but what does is highly entertaining.

The script may not make a whole lot of sense, with many with a nerd mentality keen to challenge the time-travelling aspect and the various holes within, but this particular plot device shouldn’t be taken seriously, much like the film as a whole.

Its plot cracks are papered over by some really fun, larger than life characters - none more so that the Vaughns, with some cute comical dialogue, peppered with plenty of over the top violence.

It’s a real mix, which works well for the most part, with only the odd sluggish pacing issues letting it down.

It’s certainly an ambitious project by Grabinski, who shows a lot of potential if nothing else, and could be, (ironically enough, considering his Christian name of BenDavid – and the film’s title), making names for himself for a bright future, not quite in this present.

we give this three boom of five