The Writings of John Ryan Sullivan

In today’s episode of what is wrong with movies I present to you Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. First and foremost – this is a terrible title. I say this as someone who dislikes creating titles, struggles with creating titles but sees the value of a good title.

What, I ask you, does this title (and poster) tell the potential audience about the film? Here’s what it told me, two people named Nick are in the movie and I see two Vince Vaughns. Why? I do not know. There are guns though and one of the Vince Vaughns is bound.

I am going to do what the people responsible for the film should have done: I will tell you what the movie is about. Mike &… is a time travel movie. You can guess who travels through time. Or not, as maybe time travel movies aren’t your thing. I’ve got you.

Nick (Vince Vaughn) travels back in time to work with Mike (James Marsden) to make changes that affect both of their lives. Nick is married to Alice, who happens to be having an affair with Mike. Oh and Nick and Mike are both members of the mob.

If, like me, you’d rather watch trailers for movies then read about them then enjoy my friend.

So, I am writing about this horribly titled, poorly marketed direct to Hulu movie that you most likely are unfamiliar with or were not tempted to watch. If you’ve seen the trailer then most likely you know what I’m about to say – this is a fun, good movie.

As a person who is always on the lookout for fun, good movies I was surprised when I watched the trailer for Mike &… last week. I had seen the poster, read and forgotten the title numerous times and never bothered to look further. Because, honestly, aside from two Vince Vaughns on the poster nothing was encouraging me to do so.

James Marsden is a consistently good actor. Every film or television show I have seen him in he has been good in. He has never been the standout in anything I’ve seen and he’s never been the reason why I’ve watched what I’ve watched. I think the same is true of Eliza Gonzales (albeit I’ve seen her in considerably less). I’ve always liked her and never watched something because of her.

Which means the film is resting solely on Vince Vaughn’s shoulders. Is he good in this movie? Absolutely. I don’t think he’s played two characters in the same film before and I like how this was handled. What continues to impress me about Mr. Vaughn, is that as he gets older he finds more ways to convey the humanity of his characters.

When I think back to his earlier roles many, if not all, felt one dimensional (I know it should be two but no one writes that and I don’t want to be a weirdo). Swingers, Be Cool, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a number of his characters were hip or snarky but most were motor-mouthed and inappropriate.

Which isn’t to be dismissive of his acting abilities. There were a number of roles early on, Clay Pigeons comes to mind, where he brought nuance and complexity to the character when it was not necessary to do so. All of this is to say I like what he’s doing of late (thinking of Bad Monkey here) and I appreciate what he brought to this film.

Mike &… is a science fiction/action/comedy that has as much talking as it does gun fighting. I think the main cast members have solid chemistry and the numerous cameos and smaller roles are great as well. Will this movie change your life? I doubt it. Is it fun and entertaining? You bet.

I don’t have anything deep to say about this film which is partly why I wanted to post about it. Not everything has to be monumental or epic. I appreciate well made, interesting films (and books) that entertain me. If you do as well I recommend watching Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice.