Films with time travel tend to get lost in the mechanics or blush with nostalgia at the concept, and thankfully, that isn’t the case with Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. It’s a movie that pulls off a mildly amusing feat of swirling time travel with a twisty crime comedy, while still boasting some pop culture dialogue that is more cleverly delivered than it feels like a lazy series of references.

James Marsden and Eiza González make a solid, scheming couple of Mike and Alice, as they try to deceive the mafia on the night of a big celebration. Their plans go awry when Nick (Vince Vaughn) takes an interest in what Mike is doing in the corner of the many parties for the recently sprung Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro). At first, Mike thinks his time is up, and Nick is the one pulling the trigger. What he soon learns is that Nick is trying to save Mike from a framed hit, using a time machine to get the do-over he’s been longing for.

The time machine, developed by a singing Ben Schwartz, isn’t given many specifics, reduced to the simplest controls of any film involving time travel. Neither is the twisty plot of trying to figure out who that rat is that threw Mike under the bus. Writer/director BenDavid Grabinski doesn’t waste words and finds the most amusing moments to have fun with in this story. Sure, there’s tension and murder throughout this wild night of assassinations and parties, but also some charming banter more grounded than mere improv small talk. Consider the big revelation of why Nick cares so much about Mike and Alice. It doesn’t happen during some somber confession, but a debate over the worst boyfriend in Gilmore Girls.

Where the film feels a bit too standard and often misfires is with its action sequences. The slapstick is fine, and the needle drops I can take or leave, but there are several shots where the framerate drops in a move that reminded me of John Woo films. But while Woo’s movies found a way to make that type of shooting stylish, this film presents a jarring effect of keeping the giddy music going. It comes as a distraction and a reminder that some elements thrown at the wall are not sticking.

A robust and ridiculous cast holds the farce of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice together. The absurd characters and dialogue worked rather well with this ensemble, with a highlight being a scene-chewing performance by Keith David, who fails to understand a reference to Winnie the Pooh. There’s even some smarts at play with how Nick forms his time-sensitive plan, and even the goons have a few brain cells before they’re blown away. This is a film that’s smart enough to know the hitman mystery and time-travel redos aren’t enough to make for genre-bending entertainment. You need characters to care about, and, as faulty as it would be to have them bond over bickering about chloroform expiration dates and movie citations, it works well enough to overlook the unsavory smatter of fight scene cliches. There’s a some solid fun when the most impressive moments in one location are a conversation about cat urination and not a contract killer getting a baseball-sized hole through his head.

Not available on any streaming platforms.

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