Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice Might Be on Hulu, But It Has Midnight-Movie Potential

Now streaming on Hulu after a reportedly rapturous SXSW premiere, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is an atmospheric and super-violent action-comedy that feels like it could have been made in the early 2000s, and I mean that mostly as a compliment. Mostly. It’s got the kind of dialogue that so dominated movies in the wake of the Tarantino ’90s — filled with pop-culture references and comic non sequiturs that winkingly defuse the tension — as well as a twisty-turny plot that often favors narrative surprise over logic. That makes for an enjoyable ride even if the pieces don’t always fit. It’s the kind of movie that would kill with a packed crowd, so it’s a bit of a shame it’s going out exclusively on streaming.

The film’s chief asset is Vince Vaughn in a dual role as, well, the same guy: An intimidating mob underling, his Nick is a dandyish motormouth, and his other Nick is a slightly more reflective version of the same hoodlum, only this one has traveled back to the present in a time machine to stop Present Nick from making a horrific mistake that he will regret forever. This is all in the trailer, so I’m not giving too much away, though it is a fun reveal when Quick Draw Mike (James Marsden), Nick’s partner, goes to Nick’s door with strict instructions from Nick to chloroform whoever opens the door, only to find that the guy who opens the door is … Nick. (This is also in the trailer. Hold your horses.) 

So it’s a time-machine movie, and stylistically it feels like a time-capsule movie: a smorgasbord of tones and genres held together by a devil-may-care willingness to throw anything at us. Even the presence of Vaughn feels like a throwback. The actor used to excel at these alpha-chatterbox parts earlier in his career, and he brings a lot of that charm here as well, as Future Nick guides Present Nick, Mike, and Alice (Eiza González, playing Nick’s wife with whom Mike is having an affair) in how to keep Mike from being killed by the brutal forces of their ruthless boss, Sosa (Keith David). Future Nick talks up a storm, while Present Nick often seems confused and overwhelmed; Vaughn is his own best straight man, it turns out. The same, alas, cannot be said for Marsden, a generally likable actor who feels miscast here. He doesn’t quite have the charisma or edge to breathe life into Mike, who is far too amiable and passive to be a gangland henchman that can warrant the “Quick Draw” moniker. 

The surprises are mostly in the details. Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is bursting with ideas that feel like clever marginalia on an otherwise familiar setup. Before the huge climactic shoot-out — there’s always a huge climactic shoot-out — someone casually goes through a location and places all sorts of extra guns throughout the space, hiding them in refrigerators and under pool tables and whatnot. Some of the playful bits writer-director BenDavid Grabinski introduces actually lead down intriguing character paths. The bad guys are decidedly not that bad: As played by the formidable veteran character actor Keith David, Sosa might be a snarling gangster, but he’s also clearly devoted to his adopted son, the dim-witted Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro). And Jimmy’s muscled-up, bro-y friends honestly also seem like an okay bunch of guys compared to the sniveling psychos of the John Wick movies and assorted Jason Statham titles. The ostensible villains greet our heroes with good-natured bonhomie before they get strafed to pieces; Jimmy Boy even gets a tragic backstory about how he wound up getting adopted by Sosa. At times, I was reminded of the darkly hilarious deleted scenes from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery where after each henchman the hero killed, the film cut to the faceless baddie’s friends and/or family finding out about his death. It’s these zig-when-they-zag moves that make Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice so odd and endearing once you get on its wavelength. It feels destined for cult status. Do we even have those anymore in the age of streaming?