Editor’s Note: For Freeline Media movie critic Mike Fried, takes a look at the action film Normal. Is it Normal to enjoy it? Read on!

By MIKE FRIED

NORMAL

*** 1/2

“Welcome to Normal. We like it here”.

Ulysses is a new temporary sheriff and newly separated with a backstory. He has recently moved to Normal, Minnesota. It’s a quiet little town, one with a well-stocked armory, a new City Hall being built for $17 million and a lot of secrets. Most of Ulysses’ time is spent on shenanigans. And he likes it that way.

But he is curious about the death of the previous sheriff, a guy named Gunderson. And the town seems a little bit off, as does the Mayor. When the bank is robbed – a bank, we learn, that has ties to the Yakuza in Japan — Ulysses finds himself being fired on by his own officers.

With a couple of nods to the Fargo (Gunderson and a reference to a pregnant sheriff), this movie tries to combine the gee whiz Minnesota you betcha vibe with the action of Nobody.

My immediate reaction is really one of “Did we need this movie?”  Don’t get me wrong. It’s an entertaining movie to be sure but it’s not a great movie. Nobody succeeded because Bob Odenkirk came out of nowhere from being a schlump lawyer to being the next action hero. This movie came off like an extended episode, albeit more violent, of the television series Fargo. I don’t necessarily mean that as a bad thing, but I try it to state that to point out that I don’t think that this movie trod any new ground.

Sure, Bob Odenkirk is terrific and it’s really a lot of fun seeing him in these action roles, and I guess it was the intention of Odenkirk and screenwriter Derek Kolstad to give Sheriff Ulysses a little bit more of a sad backstory than he had in Nobody. And they do that well.

Ulysses is a down on his luck sheriff who has been cashiered from his last sheriff’s gig because he shot a man who was sexually abusing his daughter. And since then he’s been a guy who cannot mete out anymore punishment. When someone has parked improperly and he leaves a ticket, the person runs out and the ticket says “Park better.”  And Odenkirk’s gruff demeanor works well for the world weary sheriff.

Ulysses just wants to be a nice guy, which is a bit of a problem when the entire town of Normal, Minnesota is indebted to the Yakuza. Mayer Henry Winkler made a deal with the Yakuza so that the town of Normal would not befall the fate of many other similar small towns around the country. But, once you’re in bed with the Yakuza, you are in bed with the Yakuza for good and for bad — usually for bad.

Winkler, himself, delivers a tremendous performance as the mayor of the town. However, it is unfortunate that he has limited screen time. The same goes for Lena Headey, who was awfully underused in this film.

Was I entertained? Sure I was. The movie lasted 85 minutes without credits and was perfectly paced. The action scenes were well executed, and there was a lot of humor embedded within the action set pieces.

Having said that, I did not get the rush from this movie that I got from Nobody or for that matter for that matter for that matter, Nobody 2, which I thought was a better movie than this.   

If you like your action movies you’ll like this film, but be warned. 

It was not exceptional. It was just plain Normal.

WATCH IT!

Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.

Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.