Review: 'Normal' reunites Bob Odenkirk with his 'Nobody' screenwriter, but the violent gun battles are less interesting this time

From its barrage of gun violence to it’s faux-ironic title, “Normal” is as predictable as small-town shoot-‘em-up as you’re likely to find — a series of tossed-off ideas for a violent action movie that never come together into an enjoyable whole.

Screenwriter Derek Kolstad, who created the “John Wick” franchise, rvteams here with Bob Odenkirk, who worked on the Kolstad-written “Nobody” movies. But the novelty of the unassuming guy revealing a powder keg of emotions underneath the surface has worn thin.

Odenkirk’s perfectly fine here, as grizzled lawman Ulysses Richardson, who’s hired to be an interim sheriff in a snowy Minnesota town, called Normal, after the untimely death of the former sheriff. Ulysses doesn’t want to clean up the town or get in anyone’s way. But something’s nagging at him, because something about the old sheriff’s death doesn’t add up — and the insincere glad-handing nature of Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler), and the way the deputies treat the sheriff’s daughter, Alex (Jess McLeod), deepens Ulysses’ suspicions.

What might the problem be with Normal? Well, the movie’s opening sequence provides a clue, when it shows a Yakuza boss (Takahiro Inoue) disciplining some underlings quite violently and dispatching them to Minnesota.

There are some odd quirks in the cast, including Billy MacLellan as a not-too-bright deputy and Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones”) as an all-knowing bar owner.

Director Ben Wheatley — whose 2016 gangster melee “Free Fire” deployed as many guns as this does — doesn’t get in the way of what Kolstad (who shares story credit with Odenkirk) usually does: Arranges for lots of people to fire off weaponry as often as possible. Unlike the “John Wick” movies, where civilians never get shot, the violence in “Normal” feels more arbitrary — though it’s explained why the deaths aren’t so random, but that bit of narrative does nothing but give the green light to wallow in the indiscriminate shooting.

——

‘Normal’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 17, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong bloody violence, and language. Running time: 91 minutes.