"Normal" Review

The improbably late-life transformation of Bob Odenkirk into an action star even less plausible than Liam Neeson continues with Normal, an even less memorable title than his previous actioners - 2011's Nobody (unreviewed, 6/10) and 2025's Nobody 2 (5/10) - which probably accounted for it's bombing at the box office despite being the best of the trio of films, all penned by Derek Kolstad, the creator of the John Wick franchise. It's too bad because it's a little blast of a flick.

 Odenkirk plays Sheriff Ulysses, the temporary Sheriff for the fictional town of Normal, MN. The previous Sheriff accidentally died of hypothermia and Ulysses is there to fill in until they can elect a new Sheriff in a couple of months. He's staying in a motel and leaving expositionary voicemails with his estranged wife to keep us filled in.

Being a small town, everyone knows everyone and it's all very cute but he senses something off about things like how they were able to raise millions of dollars in a fundraising drive and why one of the deputies chases off Alex (Jess McLeod), the daughter of the deceased Sheriff, from attending the memorial. The town's Mayor (Henry Winkler) suggests Ulysses considering staying on permanently because he's low key style of policing - he leaves a note under the windshield of a car parked too close to a fire hydrant reading, "Park better." - he demurs.

One day an alarm sounds at the police station that the bank is being robbed. The couple robbing the bank (Reena Jolly & Brendan Fletcher) crossed paths with Ulysses the day before and when he sees they're inside attempting to do CPR on a customer who collapsed from the stress, he decides to holster his weapon and go in. What happens next flips everything on its head, causing some very unlikely alliances to form in response to the situation.

What follows is a often humorously grisly sequence of bloody events which the trailer manages nicely to hint at while not completely blowing the plot. What Kolstad and Odenkirk (who collaborated on the story) have created plays like a mashup of Nobody and Evil Dead 2 (without the Deadites) with the violence sparking laughs instead of screams. I haven't seen director Ben Wheatly's Free Fire (the time we tried to watch it, the missus tapped out in about five minutes, before it had gotten going), though I've heard good things; however, Meg 2: The Trench was awful (unreviewed; 3/10 skip it score), but Normal rocks.

Part of the fun is how the first act blatantly sets up all sorts of details which you KNOW are going to come into play by the end. Clever movies often reveal they were setting things up upon a rewatch, but Normal makes darn sure that we know "this is going to be important later" like when the hardware store owner mentions he has "stump removers" locked up or (in the trailer) the old lady at the knitting shop has a police scanner. (If Kolstad had come up with the trope of Chekov's Gun, he would've had the gun with a sign proclaiming, "THIS GETS FIRED LATER!")

 Clocking in at a lean 91 minutes, Normal spends a bit too much time in its first act setting up all the dominos, but when they start falling along with the snow in the blizzard, it's worth the wait. It didn't need a sequel, but it should've have bombed like it did. Show it some love now.

Score: 8/10. Catch it on cable/streaming.