Directed by Michael Dowse
Starring: Dave Bautista, Kumail Nanjiani, Mira Sorvino
Rated R for violence and language throughout, some sexual references and brief graphic nudity
“Stuber” is an comedy action film starring Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani as a cop and an Uber driver, respectively. Vic, played by Bautista, is an officer who is trying to seek revenge for the killing of his partner. But Vic is unable to see due to Lasik sugery, therefore has to take an Uber to his destinations, his Uber driver is Stu, played by Nanjiani.
The opening scene of “Stuber” has a very interesting action scene in which two cops have a shootout in a hotel room, followed by a chase sequence. But immediately when the action started, the film was plagued with shaky cam. This is not only in the opening scene but the shaky cam is used in all the action scenes. Not only is this annoying but it is headache inducing. I was under the impression that shaky cam was dead. It is unnecessarily used for no good reason. This is something that stands out from the film, for a bad reason.
With the shaky cam gimmick, the film is very cliche. It feels like this is something we have seen before. Primarily, “Stuber” is the modern version of “Taxi” (2004) with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon. Yes, the film feels like a rip off of a 2004 comedy film that is largely forgotten. Not only is it a copy of another film, but some of the comedy falls flat. Yes, there are many hilarious moments in the film and I praise that. That is mostly due to the comedic timing of Bautista and Nanjiami. Those two are funny together whenever the comedy is actually good. But there were multiple instances of the comedy being unfunny or being dragged out. There is one scene where both Bautista and Nanjiami characters are trying to get information from someone else. Instead of being funny, the scene feels like its being dragged out and feels like a failure. It was unfunny and was just painfully awkward.
As much as I enjoy the two main leads, there are many moments of the film that could have been cut out. For instance there is a fight in a sporting goods store. Not only did it have the dreaded shaky cam and some bad humor but it feels completely unnecessary. In addition, there are two supporting characters, Nanjiami’s love interest and boss who have a few scenes. These two are a complete waste of time, they add nothing to the story. I suppose those characters are added to to add more to the run time since the film is fairly short. The two characters could have been cut out to add more interesting scenes instead we get Nanjiami’s boss saying how lonely he is with sappy music.
But as I mentioned before, some of the comedy is actually funny. It indeed does get many great laughs because of the character’s actions.As much as I have multiple complaints with the film, this is an entertaining film. But the goal of a comedy film is to make the audience laugh and it certainly does but only sparingly. “Stuber” is best viewed on demand as supposed as watching the film on the big screen.
2.5/4
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