Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice: Vince Vaughn Does Vince Vaughn in Fun Multi-genre Mashup

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B

There is such a clever idea at the heart of the new Disney+ movie Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice and a lot to admire, even if the results are mixed.

Set in the world of gangsters, the film is a mashup of genres: buddy comedy, rom-com, gangster/caper, revenge/redemption and sci-fi, specifically time travel. And it unfolds over the course of one night with some of the story told in flashbacks.

It’s a lot. To the credit of writer-director BenDavid Grabinksi, it’s coherent, often fun with some really nice writing, and the sci-fi aspect works pretty seamlessly. It’s not hard to follow on the first viewing (take that Christopher Nolan!). At the same time, an uneven execution, and some tired ideas and storylines hold it back from being all that it could be.

Much of what makes it appealing is the principal cast, led by Vince Vaughn, doing what we love him for and playing another version of that fast-talking, unironic, unflappable alpha male.

Vaughn is a gangster named Nick, who works for a crime syndicate called “The Organization.” One of his colleagues is Mike (James Marsden), known as Quick Draw Mike, a fixer and hit man. Mike wants out. He’s developed a distaste for his job, and besides he’s in love with Alice (Eiza González), who happens to be Nick’s wife.

Nick, we’re told, is a serial cheater. And so, no surprise that Alice is also in love with Mike.

Mike and Alice have plans to spend the night together in a nice hotel. But those plans are thwarted when Nick shows up at the hotel room, fortunately before Alice arrives. Nick tells Mike there is one more job he must do before he can quit. And, as it turns out, it is a life-or-death mission for Mike.

Mike has been fingered as the snitch who put a young guy named Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro) in jail. Jimmy — who, for what it's worth, is innocent of the crime — is the son of Sosa (Keith David), the head of “The Organization.” His incarceration will not go unpunished.

Jimmy Boy has just been released from jail and to celebrate, Sosa has arranged for a party, with an after-party and an after-after-after party. As part of the celebrations, Sosa has hired a famous hitman with a super creepy MO: Barron, who has been flown in to murder Mike.

It’s not giving anything away to say that Mike is not the snitch. But with the assassin in town, the wheels are in motion. Mike and, ultimately, Alice have no choice but to go along with Nick’s plan in the hopes of saving Mike’s life.

Along the way, the movie throws a twist that moves this buddy caper movie into the realm of sci fi, that involves Alice’s best friend Symon (Ben Schwartz).

Filmmaker Grabinski is an experienced showrunner and writer, who co-created the Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and developed TV’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?

He’s done a good job thinking carefully about how to structure a movie that has sci-fi and a time travel twist. And he’s written some snappy dialogue for his cast who, with some distracting exceptions, make the most of it.

The film is best when it revolves around Mike, Nick and Alice, who have a nice chemistry, with Vaughn, Marsden, and González playing it straight. They don’t lean into the fact that this is a comedy but rather, have created full-bodied characters who are likeable and easy to invite in. That gives the movie a surprising amount of heart, and as the story unfolds, that’s important.

Unfortunately, not everything works quite as well.

Sosa and Tatro, as the father and son, are strong as well. Tatro’s Jimmy Boy is kind of dim, and Grabinski’s script milks a lot of comedy out of the way he doesn’t get the references that people around him make when they're joking with him. Tatro has nice comic timing and gives us a character that is, in his way, kind of sweet.

But the storyline is weaker. The world built around Sosa and Jimmy Boy — gangsters, beefed-up bar boys, strippers, and standard club characters — are cliches and often not in a good way. When the film moves into this world, it loses something.

The scenes feel like they've come straight out of 1970s and 80s B-comedies, outdated and out of step with the main plot, which feels richer in comparison. It’s distracting enough to slow the movie down.

The sci-fi twist is fun to discover, so I won’t spoil it. It does lead to an open-ended ending… and the potential for a sequel. Despite my beefs with the film, I’d be happy to see this cast together and in action again.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. Written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski. Starring Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, and Ben Schwartz. Streaming on Disney+ beginning March 27.