.

The official premise for this film reads, ‘Two friends navigate the dangerous world of organized crime, testing their loyalty and survival skills as they get deeper into the criminal underworld.’

That last point is a little misleading as these two are already hired muscle employed by Keith David’s gangster so they are fairly deep in the criminal underworld before they start. More than this though it misses out two other key aspects. The first is that it neglects to say that it is a comedy, and a pretty good one at that. I laughed throughout and there is one gag that obliquely references an 80s TV show that had me chuckling for ages. Perhaps more significantly it also doesn’t mention that the film involves time travel. It’s not a spoiler, it’s on the poster and it is key to the whole plot.

I love the idea of mixing in sci-fi conventions in with other genres like this and it is done with appropriate reservation here. One simple go in the time machine gets the plot moving and then everything is left to play out around this rather than there being lots of leaping back and forth like in other movies of this type. This is not Bill & Ted & Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. They may go there if they do sequels, I can see a world in which we end up getting Mike & Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice & Nick & Alice & Mike & Mike & Alice but for now it is just Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice and it is a lot of fun.

The Nicks are played by Vince Vaughn and while it’s not quite up there with Michael B. Jordan in terms of performing duel roles he does it really well. Even though he is playing the same person the differences are distinct and it is interesting to see one Nick slowly become the other due to the events of one night. Mike is James Marsden and he is playing both to against type as a reluctant mob enforcer. He’s not as good as he was in Westworld but it’s not quite his Sonic schtick either. Speaking of which Ben Schwartz, the voice of the excitable alien hedgehog, also appears in what amounts to little more than a cameo but he certainly makes the most of his time on screen. The token female Alice is inevitably key to the motivation of all of these men but Eiza Gonzalez manages to make her a lot more than a trope. The central cast all sell the script and story well and there are some nice supporting turns from people you’ll recognise from other things too.

All in all this is a good movie. It has just dropped on Disney+ and I encourage you to give it a go. Personally I think they should make the sequel a body swap movie, or a living the same day over and over story, but this one does a good job with its mixed ideas and if they do make another one (there is a suggestion in the plot they will) then I’d happily take the trip back.