Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

Directed by BenDavid Grabinski, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice details the sci-fi happenings that ensue after a gangster (Vince Vaughn’s Nick) uses time travel to save the life of a colleague (James Marsden’s Mike). It’s a larger-than-life premise that is, for the most part, employed to agreeable and entertaining effect by Grabinski, as the filmmaker, who kicks the proceedings off with a wildly entertaining opening sequence, delivers a briskly-paced comedy that benefits from its irresistible setup and fun, comedically-tinged performances – with Vaughn’s predictably compelling turn matched by such affable periphery players as Eiza González, Keith David, and Jimmy Tatro. (Stephen Root’s small-but-pivotal appearance as a fearsome assassin is an obvious highlight within the proceedings.) And while the movie is perhaps not quite as consistently enthralling as one might’ve hoped, with the periodically arms-length atmosphere compounded by Grabinski’s recurring use of distracting visual tricks (eg choppy slow motion, shaky camerawork, etc), Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice ultimately comes off as a perpetually agreeable endeavor that, while in dire need of some palpable streamlining, lives up to the promise of its first act.

*** out of ****