Michael Fairbanks
Although Nobody 1 & 2 were amusing hyperviolent larks, I’ve never really bought into the prospect of Bob Odenkirk: Action Star. It seemed as though he was just trying to leverage goodwill from the types of dudes who loved Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (a group I am a part of) but it still seemed like a comedy bit. “Wouldn’t it be crazy if Saul Goodman could actually kick your ass?” Well, Free Fire director Ben Wheatley has put Odenkirk front in center in his small town showdown Normal. The aesthetic of Normal, Minnesota may be kitschy but the mayhem that takes place on the city streets is overwhelming and demanding. Odenkirk steps up to the plate, dishing out and taking an insane amount of punishment. He shuts down any suspicion of being an interloper in the genre.
Odenkirk plays Sheriff Ulysses. He’s been assigned to the midwestern town of Normal after their full time sheriff mysteriously died. We spend the first act watching him float through his day as he struggles to connect with the locals. Most of them shrug him off as a glorified babysitter. The only person who genuinely tries to engage with him is bartender Moira (Lena Heady) who is able to pry Ulysses’ tragic backstory out of him. He was involved in a botched rescue of a woman who was sexually assaulted by her father that resulted in her death. He clammed up and ruined his marriage and is now drifting from town to town. All of that pain will have to fade to the background when he uncovers bone deep corruption in the town. During a bank robbery, Ulysses’ fellow cops take a shot at him while he’s trying to confront the robbers. We learn that those folks were trying to steal a mountain of Yakuza gold inside the bank that the entire town is assisting in hoarding. Now that Ulysses knows this secret, he must take the fall. Thus begins a blistering barrage of carnage that stretches throughout every corner of Normal. Very few heads are left unshot.
Ben Wheatley has always felt like a bit of a genre interloper to me. I’ve never been able to truly key in to Free Fire, High Rise or Kill List. They’re occasionally entertaining but there has always been an air of pompousness. Using the genres more as a vehicle for empty style than truly trying to excel in them. This is not an issue in Normal, which entirely embraces it’s status as a B-Movie. Wheatley’s execution of the non-stop chaos in the second half is electric. There is an insane amount of gunplay here but it is not hyper choreographed like John Wick or Nobody. It is painful and messy. Bullets are unpredictable creatures and they often make mistakes. There’s a mortifying amount of collateral damage here. Anyone in the background of any given scene risks getting blown away and often face worse deaths than the actual aggressors. The sequences often play out like an unintentional Rube Goldberg string of destruction. The gore is unflinching. Any given part of the human body is destroyed at some point in this movie.
Odenkirk also excels during the more intimate hand to hand encounters. We never lose sight of the fact that these are all just regular people using their environment and sheer will to win these skirmishes. It doesn’t try to oversell Odenkirk’s ferocity. Ulysses isn’t a seasoned fighter but he’s resourceful and spiteful which in this context concours all. He is an effective enough everyman here to draw comparisons to Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Gruff and often dryly funny, he glides through Normal with the vibrance of a young man who is just getting started in this genre.
The supporting cast is not as strong. Lena Heady is always a strong presence but she’s really only there to listen to Die Hard’ story at the start and pop back up once towards the very end for payoff. She absolutely should’ve been along for the ride the entire time. Total waste. Henry Winkler scores a couple of big laughs as Normal’s ineffectual mayor but he too is not around for very long. Jess McLeod is only mildly compelling as Alex, the daughter of the previous sheriff, but she too doesn’t have enough time. Once the siege on the town gets started, Wheatley is really only interested in paying attention to Die Hard. We get a moment or two with the town’s inhabitants during the lengthy first act but the script ultimately isn’t strong enough to make them feel like much more than bullet sponges.
Normal is 2026’s first impactful action film and a major step up for its two headlining talents. It’s the kind of film that is dense enough in violence to demand multiple viewings to be able to catch all of the kills. Hopefully Ben Wheatley drops his higher artistic ambitions and sits in this realm for a while. He doesn’t have the depth to be an A-List director but he could well become a top tier B-Movie helmer. This doesn’t have franchise potential, but I would love to see him plug Odenkirk into another bloody scenario soon.
