Normal

Remember when a movie become a bigger success than you would have imagined? Usually some big ciname releases may either flop, or they might make enough money to make a little bit of profit. Then you have those films that made a hell of a lot of money, that no one probably saw coming. You never really know these days because the audience will always decide what they enjoy. Even if a film critic hate a film, the audience may not even bother what critics are sauing and still pay for tickets. For example, back in the year of 2017 i never would have imagined, that the psychological horror film Get Out would be a massive box office success. I remember that the movie critics praised the film, however, i never expected a horror film made on a limited budget of 4.5 million U.S. dollars, would end up getting over 259 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales. That is really impressive numbers of ticket sales, no matter if you like the film Get Out or if you dislike this film. I personally enjoyed this film for a number of reasons, both because of the acting, the storyline but especially how effective this film is as a psychological horror film. Worth a watch if you are looking for a solid horror film, no matter if you prefer to watch it on streaming or physical media. Another film that really surprised me is actually an action film, and that is the 2021 film known as Nobody from director Llya Naishuller. On a budget of 16 million U.S. dollars this film ended up making over 57 million U.S. dollats in ticket sales. Not bad at all, not a massive success perhaps but still making a descent profit considering that cinemas have been struggling since the pandemic, Plus this film did well on streaming and physical media as well. Nobody turned out to be a really violent action trip, where actor Bob Odenkirk ( perhaps mostly known from the Netflix TV series Better Call Saul ) really showed a very strong physical acting performance. I do appreciate the violence in this film, combined with a good sense of humour. I have not seen the sequel yet Nobody 2 but i definetely plan to watch it at some point. I did however see Bob Odenkirk´s film Normal which i decided to review. A film i have read positive reviews about, so considering im a big fan of the original Nobody film of course i was excited to watch Normal. Is this another great film with the highly respected Better Call Saul actor, or is this way worse than we ever would have expected?

Ulysses ( Bob Odenkirk ) begins serving as intern sheriff of the small town of Normal, Minnestota. At first it seems that most locals welcome the new sheriiff in town, as well as Mayor Kibner ( Henry Winkler ). But after he discover certain details about the bank of Normal, something doesn´t seem quite right about this town. The locals don´t like it when people dig into the past, and this may cause some big issues for the new Sheriff Ulysses.

What if you did a similar environment as in the 1996 classic film Fargo and combined some influences from films such as the 2023 film Americana? Then you pretty much have have the concept for what Normal looks like. Small town stories from Normal, where you get to see how the people of this town function in different scenarios. If you thought actor Bob Odenkirk would do a similar acting performance in Normal as he did in the 2021 action film Nobody, i can tell you that this is a completely different character. I would describe his character Ulysses as a typical small town sheriff, who tries to deal with local folks as good as he can. Bob Odenkirk deliver a solid performance and i like the fact that he tries to do a classic small town sheriff character, in the same sense that we experienced in the 1996 cult classic film Fargo. Different films of course, still you can feel some inspiration could have been used from Fargo while they were making the film Normal. I could of course be wrong, but if you compare these two films i feel some similarities. Legendary actor Henry Winkler does another great performance as the fun character Mayor Kibner. This film unfortunately turned out to be a box office bomb this year, and in one way i can understand why. It´s not because this film is bad, it´s actually a really good film. But i feel that this is a difficult film to make a wider audience want to see it, because not many films telling a story about a small town have been box office hits. Just look at the 2011 film Take Shelter, that was praised by critics and had a great cast. It didn´t help and barely crossed over the film´s budget around 5 million U.S. dollars. Not a big box office bomb, yet managed to find an audience on streaming and physical media instead. I just think Normal is a difficult film unless you enjoy small town stories, which i am a fan of. With that said i do think this film works both as an action film, thriller combined with drama. The violence is fun, the dialogue is actually effective as well and i do think director Ben Wheatley ( director of a personal favourite of mine called A Field In England, worth picking up on physical media ) proves himself again to be a talented director. That he can basically take on any genre in film, and still leave a positive impact as he have in his previous films. The biggest surprise of Normal is how this turns into a very violent showdown where even the Japanese Yakuza are involved. If you loved the 2021 film Nobody then this could be something for you. It´s the kind of old school action film we used to get in the 1980´s, where violence was the key to solve problems, instead of just talking. Normal have all the ingredients you need for a fun old school action popcorn night, and Bob Odenkirk proves that there is still hope for the action genre.

Rating: DDDD