Review: Writer-Director BenDavid Grabinski’s “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice”
"Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice" might look like a somewhat generic, glossy action-comedy on the surface. It's got two (well, kind of three, but we'll get to that later) men north of 50 ( Vince Vaughn and James Marsden ), one woman south of 40 (Eiza González) and the promise of some violence (you know, the fun kind). That's not necessarily a bad thing — sometimes you get a "This Means War" or a "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." But in the streaming era, more often than not you get, I don't know, "Red One"?"Fountain of Youth"? Something else we've already all forgotten? This might also be a streaming-era production, debuting on Hulu and Disney+ on Friday, but it's clear from the very first moments that "Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice" isn't just a generic facsimile of a "fun" movie designed for more for the algorithm than anyone's amusement. No, this is a movie that begins, for no particular reason other than probably the delight of the filmmakers, with Ben Schwartz singing "Why Should I Worry?" a song that was written and sung by Billy Joel for the 1988 animated Disney movie "Oliver & Company," a modern, New York City-set take on Charles Dickens starring dogs. Is it related to anything? No. Is it a fun song to set the tone that also made this elder millennial critic smile? Yes. There are choices like this throughout the film, mostly through precise, lighthearted banter that sounds real. There's even a spirited debate about the best and worst boyfriends on "Gilmore Girls" — Rory's, not Lorelai's, which falls a little flat in execution. I'm not sure the actors' hearts are really invested in Logan and Jess the way, say, Liam Neeson was able to act genuinely distraught over his "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episodes being deleted off his DVR in "The... Read More