As a huge fan of genre hybrids and a big fan of BenDavid Gabrinski’s writing one of my more anticipated films of the festival was “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” which is a time travel crime buddy action-comedy. It has shades of “John Wick,” Shane Black, John Woo, and Vince Vaughn comedies of the 00’s.
The film follows Quickdraw Mike (James Marsden), an enforcer for a loan shark named Nick (Vince Vaughn) who secretly wants out and is having an affair with Nick’s wife Alice (Eiza Gonzalez). One night, Mike’s date with Alice is cut short when Nick needs him for a very unusual last job. Throw in a time machine and you have what could potentially be a very interesting little genre cocktail. But sadly, my biggest takeaway from “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” is how much I missed the ecosystem that could give us fast-talking Vince Vaughn comedies (which I never really much cared for at the time).
A Time Traveling Action Romp
Vince Vaughn’s fast-talking charisma is doubled in his dual role as ‘Future Nick’ and ‘Past Nick’ and truly carries this film across the finish line. He’s so effortless and credible as Mob boss (a role he’s played numerous times now). He manages to have easy chemistry with every single member of the ensemble and run on these long tirades, trying to explain the loopy logic of this film he hardly can understand along with who his favorite “Gilmore Girls” boyfriend is.
Marsden does very solid #2 on the call sheet work and Eiza does the best that she can with a largely thankless role. Outside of Vaughn, the only members of the ensemble who truly shined were the hilarious pairing of the great Keith David and Jimmy Tatro (“American Vandal”) as a mob boss Father and son duo that manage to fill out their own backstory in hilarious ways.
Overall Serviceable Entertainm
The action is serviceable and makes subtle cinematic references to John Woo without ever for a second being nearly up to the caliber of even his worst American films. The whole film felt like it was struck with a very bad case of the 2020’s “we can only make a studio comedy if there is a gun in the poster” sickness that we need to get past.
“Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” is fine entertainment while scrolling through Hulu but fell short of its fun genre blend premise for me. I’m not sure if it’s a symptom of my own festival fatigue but I couldn’t stop thinking “streaming movie” across every moment of it. But there’s enough funny bits and it moves at a good enough clip that I may revisit to see if I am more fond of it on rewatch.
SXSW 2026 ran from March 12-March 18. Follow us for more coverage.
