‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’ Is the Messy, Time-Bending Cult Classic Nobody Saw Coming
James Marsden & Vince Vaughn & Vince Vaughhn & Eiza González deliver one of the most entertaining movies of the year.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is hilarious.
It’s also a bit aggressive with the ampersands, but there’s a good reason for that.
You see, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is what happens when mob bosses & time travel & after after parties & chloroform & Gilmore Girls &—hold up. Let’s try this again.
On the surface, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice sounds eerily similar to just about every mob movie in the history of Western civilization: Mike (James Marsden) is sick and tired of shooting people in the face for a living. So, of course, on the night he finally decides to call it quits, his fellow career criminal, Nick (Vince Vaughn), convinces him to hit one last lick before Mike hangs his jersey in the rafters.
Did I mention Mike partakes in ravenous, extramarital sex with Nick’s wife, Alice (Eiza González), behind his back? Oh.
Naturally, this illicit love triangle is the perfect recipe for a vengeful bloodbath. But because Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is hellbent on giving the tired mob movie trope the middle finger, it adds a completely unhinged twist to the equation: a time machine.
Yes, you read that right: a time machine.
And as with all things that involve semi-automatic handguns and time travel, foolishness and fuckery ensue for approximately 107 minutes of runtime, as Nick arrives from the future to save his BFF Mike in the present from a murderous crime boss (Keith David).
I did mention Mike is fucking Nick’s wife, right?
Just making sure.
If this all sounds like complete and utter insanity, it’s because it absolutely is. But that’s also what imbues this movie with its undeniable charm: the outlandishness of it all juxtaposed against the conventional “one last job and I’m out” trope. We’ve been down this road before, with Robert De Niro in Heat, Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, and approximately 7,391,528 other instances of a contrite mobster running back on stage for one last encore to the audience’s delight.
But with a time machine?
This has gotta be a first.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice isn’t without its missteps, however.
That whole Wong Kar-wai smeared visual aesthetic that director BenDavid Grabinski sporadically deploys is confounding, and if gratuitous amounts of camp isn’t your ministry, you might find the tone of this film off-putting.
Hell, you might even mistake it for parody.
That said, it’s borderline criminal that this excellent cast, with their excellent gags, won’t get the opportunity to be drowned in laughter and box office receipts since they’re skipping that whole extravagant theatrical release thing in order to take their quirkiness and snark straight to Hulu.
But just remember: Even though wacky sci-fi action comedies might be condemned to streaming services in this day and age, that doesn’t make them any less worthy of praise or accolades.
Some movies step up to the plate and swing for greatness. Others stumble into cult classic status by sheer force of personality. Because sometimes, all it takes is a time machine, a generous dose of betrayal, and absolutely no interest in behaving.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice premieres on Hulu on March 27th.