Squinting cops and chatty rideshare drivers make for a bad trip in ‘Stuber’
It takes a lot more than various disparate components joining together to make a successful summer comedy. That’s what’s attempted in “Stuber,” but despite a handful of effective moments and some occasional surprisingly good acting, the film fails to coalesce, or deliver.
There are stories swirling all around the edges, ranging from a divorced veteran cop trying to maintain a good relationship with his adult daughter Nicole (Natalie Morales) to an Uber driver (his name is Stu, and his idiot boss calls him Stuber) trying to earn a five-star rating from his customers; from the cop going after a ruthless drug dealer to the Uber driver believing he’s going to have a chance at love - or at least sex - with his longtime gal pal Becca (Betty Gilpin). But smack in the middle of all those edges is the central story concerning the meeting of minds between Vic (Dave Bautista), the no-nonsense, tough-guy cop with a grudge against the criminal who killed his partner, and Stu (Kumail Nanjiani), probably the most annoying Uber driver yet to be seen in
any movie.
An opening sequence in the streets of Los Angeles features some big-time shifting of moods. It’s cops against bad guys, and everywhere you look there’s guns and fists and feet and dazzling stunt work. But the nicely choreographed blast of fun action turns deadly, Vic loses his partner, the screen goes dark, and it all jumps to “six months later.”
Which is when we meet Stu, who recently received yet another bad rating as an Uber driver, this time for having “massive eyebrows,” but is feeling upbeat because he and his old friend Becca are about to open their first spin gym for women (whatever the heck that is). Before long, we’re back in the company of Vic, who has been putting off dealing with some vision problems, but is now finally giving in to LASIK surgery.
It should be no surprise to anyone that rugged Vic and meek Stu are going to come in contact with each other, and that the film is going to be about these two opposites attracting, or at least getting along, when fate slams them together. The route the script takes to start that process is a circuitous one. On the same day that Vic has had his eye surgery, he’s planning to attend his daughter’s art show opening, even though he’s squinting so badly, there’s no way he’ll be able to see her work. Also, on the same day, Vic gets a hot tip that a drug deal is going down, and it’ll be under the auspices of Tedjo, the vile criminal who killed his partner, and on whose case Vic has been working for two years. Looks like it’s going to be a busy night for Vic. Of course, since he can’t see very well, he can’t drive, so he hops into the back seat of a convenient nearby car - the one leased by off duty Uber man Stu, who is told in no uncertain terms by Vic that he is going to drive him were he wants to be driven, that he is being “enlisted” for police work.
Stu is annoying, Vic is easily annoyed ... these opposites are not going to attract, or get along, at least not until the film is almost over and it’s time to wrap things up neatly with the usual formula.
On the way to that point, the script manages to include an almost equal measure of funny stuff (some of it too slapstick) and rugged violence (there’s an unusually high body count for a comedy). Former pro wrestler Bautista, in his first lead after some promising supporting work in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Bladerunner 2019,” shows off some pretty good acting chops here.
It’s too bad, though, that Nanjiani, after a winning performance in “The Big Sick,” here seems to be doing something more along the line of stand-up shtick instead of believable acting.
The film turns out to be uneven, but mostly fun, and it has an exciting but silly ending.