Stuber

The friend secretly absorbed with each and every amiable interaction, from the request for a ride to the desire for advice, overwhelmed with romantic longing, as futile as it is interminable.

The work obsessed dad blindly caught up in locked down affairs, his commitments demanding fidel ubiquity, a daughter used to absent-minded gruff brooding.

The blunt co-worker, in possession of more authority, who brands nicknames and thinks you love them, and revels in economic gloom.

Corruption on the force creating volatile deadly conflicts, needs for versatile flexibility, chaotic discredited isolation.

Vic Manning (Dave Bautista) still needs a ride.

And Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) is there to pejoratively provide one.

He's even recruited to take part in the action, and rapidly learns to take disturbed risks.

His protests register even if they're ignored, as leads are followed and clues deciphered.

Parenting and personal relationships introduce romantic distractions, as they briskly Uber around town, from one total disaster to the next.

In search of a monstrous killer.

Who's escaped Manning's clutches before.

Stuber crosses mild-mannered and hardboiled streams to track down supernatural malevolence, generously disputing in begrudged mismatch, reluctantly computing with forlorn self-sacrifice.

It's a bit far-fetched.

Stu has never fired a gun before and Vic can hardly see yet they outperform the competition with soul searching relative ease, the showdowns not as slapstick as they could have been, disbelief acutely shuddering in echo.

In order to suspend disbelief, situations should be genuinely ridiculous, and when they blend in too much realism, they disrespect fantasy and simply seem improbable.

Not cool improbable, improbable improbable.

Cool improbable like when Stu's ride blows up in the end.

Could have ran with that throughout.

Batista and Nanjiani work well together though, and it's fun to watch as they mindfully meld.

Stuber is another film where the nice guy learns to be manly by being forced to engage in violent combat, however, but the man's man also learns to be more of a nice guy by having to rely upon gentle grief within.

Which almost gets them killed at times, but works out well when they aren't battling, Manning eventually coming to terms with his past, then strengthening his relationship with his passionate daughter.

A bit too ra ra but slightly saved by an unlikely duo, Stuber's full of head shaking novelty, that wildly plays with contemporary phenomena.

Some laughs but of the "wow that must have hurt" variety, Stuber could make a cool Ride Along crossover, especially if they leave rationed reason far behind.