Stuber (2019) - Movie Review

It’s mismatched buddy cop flick time again. He’s a cop with visual impairment who is trying to juggle work and family. He’s an Uber driver who finds himself on the ride of his life. And when the two meet, hijinks ensue. It’s the same ‘human brick wall paired with meek funnyman’ formula that gave us Central Intelligence a few years back, a film where the casting is one of the only consistently good things about the whole production. Thankfully, today’s feature manages to keep that casting boost while giving them a story that… well, it ain’t the best, but it lets the two leads do what they do best.

Dave Bautista has officially become the latest genuine success story of wrestling-to-acting transition, and as the blind bull in the china shop, he carries it off so that he lets the one-note joke become part of the character, not just his entire reason for being. As for Kumail Nanjiani, considering his major break in the market with The Big Sick, he stays on-brand here as a guy who wisecracks to deal with dour situations and gives the big lug some self-help tips. Their pairing starts off a bit wonky, to the point where Nanjiani has better chemistry with a random male stripper than his own billing partner, but over time, they work out pretty well together.

It helps that their pairing, and their persona-accurate casting, fits in nicely with the admittedly-tropey framework of the narrative. Namely, because it highlights one of the better aspects of the buddy cop formula: Two different extremes learning from each other so that they can meet in the middle by the end. Bautista’s Vic is a hard-ass who can turn a room full of thugs into a slaughterhouse. But between his varyingly messed-up relationships with his own family, he serves as the latest example of the ‘overworked cop’ that somehow got out of the grave Nicholas Angel put it in.

Nanjiani’s Stu (get it, his name’s Stu and he drives for Uber, let’s keep reminding the audience of how good this pun is(!)) is on the other end: A man who is stuck in the friend zone and can’t get past why his love interest keeps dating jerks when he’s already such a ‘nice guy’. This… is a disastrous character background, the kind that would usually lead to an absolute trainwreck of a so-called ‘human being’ on either side of the screen. But again, this is where the casting really helped save the day because Nanjiani plays it with a commendable amount of heart to keep it from getting too worrying. That, and Tripper Clancy’s writing manages to dodge the worser implications of the ‘nice guy’ routine.

Sure, it’s got more than a few dud jokes, and the plot can be very predictable at times, and some of the action scenes are outright ruined by the nauseating handheld camera work. Shaky-cam is like dip: It can be quite nice on the side, but not when the main course is drowning in the stuff. Considering this is most prominent during Iko Uwais’ main showcases, it’s a bad sign when you’re making Mile 22 look like the better use of his talents. And did I mention how fucking stupid the title is?

But, for all my gripes, I have to admit that I had fun with this one. It’s good seeing Bautista sticking around for the long haul outside of portraying Drax, and it’s especially good seeing Nanjiani not losing his emotional brand of comedy and still getting lead roles. Honestly, after seeing him go mock-crazy here, I get the feeling that his talents could expand beyond just comedy, but only time will tell on that one. It’s not a five-star ride, but I still think it’s worth a tip.