Movie Review: Stuber

  Hello all, and welcome to my review of Stuber! 😀

  Starring: Dave Bautista (Vic Manning), Kumail Nanjiani (Stu), Iko Uwais (Oka Tedjo), Betty Gilpin (Becca), Natalie Morales (Nicole)

Plot (taken from IMDb):

“A detective recruits his Uber driver into an unexpected night of adventure.”

Trailer:

Characters:

Dave Bautista (Vic Manning) – A cop on a quest for vengeance against a criminal he’s been chasing for a long time. I’m slowly starting to really love this actor. He seems to have a great sense of humor – kind of similar to Dwayne Johnson in that he’s this big muscular badass that doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously.

Kumail Nanjiani (Stu) – A normal guy who works at a sporting goods store, and has a second part-time job as an Uber driver. He says himself that he has settled. He’s comfortable where he is in life, despite not being very satisfied. He’s also pining for a woman who doesn’t even know he exists. I love his dry sense of humor, and watching him get pushed out of his comfort zone throughout the course of the movie.

Iko Uwais (Oka Tedjo) – The criminal Vic has been chasing. He’s involved in all kinds of terrible things. I’m not familiar with this actor, but I love his fight scenes!

Betty Gilpin (Becca) – Stu’s big time crush that he’s been friend-zoned by for years. She seems kind of oblivious, and I wasn’t too crazy about her character.

Natalie Morales (Nicole) – Vic’s daughter. Their relationship is a little strained, but it’s clear that they love each other. Vic’s not always the most cuddly kinda guy though, so he does’t always know how to show it.

Review:

This movie was so much fun! As with all buddy cop movies, it follows the usual recipe of two opposites being forced to work together.

Their interactions were so over the top, I loved them! Between Vic’s blunt nature and reckless abandon about plunging headlong into gun fights, and Stu’s quiet sarcasm and screaming like a girl, they played off each other really well.

Vic is a hard-as-nails cop with a score to settle. He lets nothing get in his way in the pursuit of getting justice for the partner he lost. Not even a little thing like having just had Lasik eye surgery and being unable to see anything more than blurry shapes. He’s hilariously stubborn, lol.

He’s a badass, but he’s so dedicated to being a cop that he struggles for a balance between his work and personal life. You can see how it’s affected his relationship with his daughter, and I wish they’d given a little more context there. You kind of get the usual – the daughter feels distant from him because he doesn’t share how he feels and he spends more time at work than he does at home. I get why they use this all the time, but I see it almost every time an officer in a movie has a kid.

Stu, on the other hand, starts out completely resigned. He’s head over heels for Becca, who seems to use him for emotional support quite a bit. His part-time job as an Uber driver is even to help fund her business that she wants to open.

He never really sticks up for himself much at first, especially with Becca. He kind of lets her string him along because he wants to be with her so badly. Lol, I feel like as oblivious as she seems, she can’t be completely blind, and by the end of it I was seriously hoping Stu would meet some ridiculously amazing lady and forget about Becca.

For the action, it wasn’t bad. They did a great job of mixing the comedy and action together in a way that suited both characters. Stu thought things through a lot more while Vic just went in with all guns blazing.

Lol, poor Stu. He spent a lot of time screaming and panicking. One of my favorite scenes though is when he confronts Vic and they finally hash things out.

This is one of those movies that’s well worth setting aside your disbelief, despite the fact that this kind of scenario would never happen in real life. You just kind of have to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Honestly, as critical as I can be about comedies, this movie kept me laughing the whole time. 😀

My rating for Stuber: Cash-Worthy – This was really a lot of fun. Stu and Vince played off each other very well, and I loved their back and forth throughout the movie. Definitely check this one out if you like movies like Central Intelligence, The Heat, or buddy cop movies in general. 😀

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My Rating System:

Epic: This movie is so mind-bogglingly awesome that I may go see it twice. This one will have a place of honor on my shelf.

Cash-Worthy: Good stuff. This will most likely find a place on my shelf.

Not Bad: I liked it. I’m glad I saw it, and it may or may not end up on my shelf at some point. I would say rent it first to be safe.

Meh: Rent it first. You may love it or hate it, but I’m indifferent probably because it’s not my type of movie. I’m glad I saw it, but it won’t end up on my shelf.

Emergency Cake: I have an emotional reaction to movies sometimes, especially to tragedies. If a movie makes me sad or angry, sometimes it will stick with me for a while. At these times, only chocolate cake can save me. Chocolate cake makes everything better. No shelf for you. Ever.

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