“I really think the action in buddy comedies pulls punches today and I hate that and didn’t want to do it,” Michael Dowse, the director of SXSW-debuting film “Stuber,” said empathetically during the world premiere of his new buddy comedy and action film. And it’s clear the filmmaker took his own advice, probably a little too well, and possibly overcompensating as he crafts a comedy that’s really quite hyper-violent, a little nasty in tone, and never as funny as it should be.
Regardless of the action, “Stuber” certainly isn’t lacking in talent. There’s an age-old philosophy that even the most contrived, mundane buddy comedy script can be elevated and still work, in spite of itself, if you have two terrific leads (a recent example being Paul Feig’s “The Heat”). Sadly, “Stuber” seems dead-set on debunking that theory. Dave Bautista plays Vic, a tough-as-nails cop who has been pursuing a dangerous criminal (Iko Uwais from “The Raid”) for almost two years. Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) is a sporting goods store employee who moonlights as an Uber driver to help his friend-but-secret-love (Betty Gilpin) start a cycling gym. After Lasik surgery leaves Vic vision-impaired, just as the criminal’s trail becomes hot, he gets in Stu’s Uber and the two end up having to band together to survive the night.
While the chemistry between Bautista’s straight-man timing, and overt physicality, and Nanjiani’s gift for delivering smart wordplay goes a long way, it’s not enough to combat fundamental issues on the action, character, and storytelling front. “Stuber” falls into a similar trap that most of these contemporary buddy comedies do, putting the humor and improvisation ahead of the action and story, instead of the other way around. Vic and Stu’s goals are clearly defined, but the mechanics of the story are so perfunctory that when reveals start to happen, they feel more random than gasp-worthy.
And then back to that action that we mentioned in the opening. There’s a crass mean-spiritedness to these scenes that feels less like they are creating stakes and more like they are trying hardest to show how “edgy” they can be. Specifically, an overextended scene (perhaps a “They Live” homage?) in which Vic and Stu fight each other. It’s played for laughs, but is just vulgar and apropos of nothing. Then there’s the inclusion of Uwais, who brings intense athleticism to the martial arts films that he has been in. And not only is his screen time wasted, but the blocking and editing to do no justice to his capability as a physical performer.
Then there’s the plot devices that exist only to incorporate the logic of the Uber app into the story. Stu is worried that his timidness and inability to connect with people is lowering his star rating, so he goes with Vic as far as it can go in hopes that he will leave him a high rating. There’s another flaccid gag involving Uber Pool (the low-cost option where you share a ride with another passenger), another about the fare, and so on. Framing jokes around the service – especially ones that mostly miss – comes across more like blatant product placement for Uber than an organic element to the story.
The energy coming from the stage inside of the Paramount Theatre, during the premiere, was palpable, suggesting that “Stuber” was a much more enjoyable film to make than to sit through. They mentioned multiple times that this version was a “work-in-progress” print, so we won’t have an idea of what is changed between now and its scheduled release date of July 12, but we suspect that it won’t be much, considering the technical quality of the print. “This is a work-in-progress, but know by the time it comes out, all of my scenes will be replaced with Hasan Minhaj,” Nanjiani joked. From what we saw, the least of “Stuber’s” issues is Nanjiani and Bautista. They are a perfect mismatched pair and play off of each other extremely well, but if “Stuber” was an Uber driver, it would get a 2-star rating at best.
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