Stuber review: Uber-inspired comedy just isn’t funny

Dir: Michael Dowse. Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Dave Bautista, Iko Uwais, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Mira Sorvino, and Karen Gillan. 15 cert, 93 mins

If a cultural trend exists, someone in Hollywood will try to make a buddy comedy about it. While we await the inevitable Vape: The Movie, along comes Stuber, which rolls out as many half-hearted jokes as possible about Uber, the ridesharing app. The punchline, of course, is all about how obsessed drivers are with getting a five-star rating from customers. One such driver, Stu (Kumail Nanjiani), nicknamed Stuber, is particularly anxious about it. He’s got a glove compartment full of snacks, an iPod loaded up with every genre of music, and a whole host of other small luxuries he hopes will put his customers in a generous mood. But nothing works. The film cycles through a typical night for Stu, where riders vomit all over his rented Prius and explain the entire plot of Harry Potter, with not a single five stars to reward him for his troubles.

His ultimate test, however, comes in the form of rogue cop Vic (Dave Bautista), who commandeers Stu’s Prius as part of his revenge mission against the drug lord (Iko Uwais), who is responsible for the death of his former partner (Karen Gillan). Vic needs someone else to do the driving, since he’s just had laser eye surgery and can barely see. Stu, meanwhile, is desperate to clock off duty so he can be the shoulder to cry on for his best friend/unrequited love Becca (Betty Gilpin). It’s safe to say that this odd couple are in it for the long haul, as Vic forces Stu to drive him from destination to destination, even as the investigation turns increasingly violent.

Ultimately, Stuber wants to explore our own notions of masculinity. Vic is your standard movie brute, who thinks violence is always the answer and that showing vulnerability is a sign of weakness. Stu, meanwhile is the more sensitive type, but his inability to be honest with Becca has made him an insufferable “nice guy”, convinced that she only dates assholes and that he deserves something in return for the kindness he’s shown her. As can be expected, these two men find they have a lot to learn from each other.

Which would all be well and good, maybe, if Stuber was actually funny. The film’s script, written by Tripper Clancy, struggles to mine much material out of the contrasts between the two men, outside of a mildly amusing sequence where Stu uses a suspect’s Twitter account to post embarrassing tweets as a non-violent method of torture. It’s especially jarring to see Nanjiani, who’s reliably funny in even the most mediocre of projects, work so hard to tease the humour out of his dialogue. Bautista, for the most part, just settles with what he’s given, employing the same kind of deadpan delivery that worked like a charm for his role as Guardians of the Galaxy’s Drax and hoping it miraculously works out.

It’s clear that Clancy, alongside director Michael Dowse, were paying homage to the ultra-violent buddy movies of the 1980s, with just enough self-reflection to feel relevant today. Yet, the film’s ideas feel mangled in their delivery. The way Stu treats Becca, and the belief that he’s been friendzoned, doesn’t actually end in him learning his lesson. We’re invited to question the old action tropes of “shoot first, ask questions later”, but it’s somehow Stu who needs to reframe his thinking and get used to murdering bad guys (it’s OK, the film tries to reassure us, these people sell heroin to kids). Even the film’s idea of upending genre norms, by having the investigation lead the duo to a male strip club, fails to make any clear point.

It’s also bizarre to see Uwais shot here in such an incoherent manner. The Indonesian actor, known for 2011’s The Raid, is a master of fight choreography and deserves to be watched in long, unbroken takes. His action scenes in Stuber, however, look like they were filmed on an iPhone from someone escaping an alien attack. Almost everything is in a tight focus, with the camera rattling around with abandon. Add to that, there’s an unnecessary need to punctuate every fight scene with a classic rock song, which becomes especially egregious when one of those tracks is ripped from Guardians of the Galaxy itself (CC’s “I’m Not in Love”). Stuber tries hard to be an action-comedy for the post-modern era but, ultimately, it fails to stick to the route.

Stuber is released in UK cinemas on 12 July