Bob Odenkirk plays another unassuming schmo with secret uberyarbles in Normal (now on HBO Max), a violent comedy that might skew a little too close to Nobody and its sequel than it probably should. Consider: a six-letter title that starts with “no,” lots of blood ‘n’ guts for comedy’s sake, another screenplay by Derek Kolstad, and Odenkirk’s nice-guy persona. But there are enough tweaks to the formula here — and enough nifty moves from director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Meg 2: The Trench) — to differentiate Normal from most disposable and cynically violent action-laffers. Which is a way of saying you might feel bad for how hard and often it makes you laugh.

NORMAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: Normal, Minnesota has a population of 1,890, but that number is about to plummet precipitously. Ulysses (Odenkirk) is the interim sheriff in this one-moose town. The previous sheriff croaked and the next election is in a few weeks. Ulysses’ goal, outlined in voiceover narration/unanswered voicemails to his ex, is to “leave this town just the way I found it.” As he gets the lay of the land, he realizes this place might as well be called Chekhovton. An arsenal of loaded guns hangs on the wall of the local watering hole. The hardware proprietor has a locked cabinet full of mysteries — “old school stump busters,” he calls ’em — behind the counter. The police armory makes a paramilitary unit look like a paper sack full of three busted popguns and a slingshot. The biggest red flag around here though? Everyone is SUPER FRIENDLY. Shudder.

Ulysses’ new philosophy on life is, “Life’s a lot easier when you care a little less.” Things have been grinding this guy down for a while now, it seems — more on that later, in the inevitable Third Act Traumatic Flashback. Thankfully, nothing ever happens in this town. Nothing! He spends a goodly portion of his first few days on “shenanigans,” ranging from the yarn lady getting mauve shipped to her instead of pink, and petty tiffs between locals who’ve known each other a little too well for a little too long. For that reason, and to not ruffle any feathers, he lets a lot of things slide. When the local barkeep (Lena Headey) parks in the no parking zone, Ulysses forgoes a ticket for a note reading PARK BETTER. He shows considerable de-escalation skills when a coupla dolts nearly come to blows over the price of a hardware item. “Calm cleans messy,” Ulysses says, and he lives by that.

The locals, of course, are eccentrics. Like Ulysses’ cloyingly nice deputy, Mike (Billy MacLellan), who pours him coffee and sheepishly points out that their mustaches are so similar, they’re “like brothers.” Or the mayor (Henry Winkler), who has a slightly sinister edge beneath his smiley veneer. But one day, Mike and Ulysses’ life-or-death planning of a parade route is derailed by an alarm: Someone’s robbing the bank. The bank, which has a vault full of stuff that belongs to the Yakuza. Yeah. The Yakuza. We meet them during a cold open. Are you shocked to learn that Ulysses is gonna hafta run-and-gun his way out of this unassuming heavily armed blizzard-blasted town? No, you’re not. It’s how he runs-and-guns his way out that makes it fun.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Normal is Nobody meets Wheatley’s Free Fire in a Fargo locale.

Performance Worth Watching: MacLellan is goofy-funny enough as the tryhard toadie cop that for a few minutes, I thought the character was being played by Rob Delaney.

Sex And Skin: Nah.

Our Take: When the first person gets exploded into little splattery meatchunks, I laughed loudly, then felt bad about it, then felt bad that I felt bad, so I stopped feeling bad and felt good. Sometimes, comedy’s comedy and you just have to let rip. And Wheatley lets rip in the second half of Normal, after establishing all the scenarios in the first. I hesitate to praise the existence of grenade launchers for being a vital tool in the implementation of grisly mayhem, but it feels OK in the context of a movie like this, which uses them for good, in the sense that it’s hysterically funny when people are murdered by them, and that we’re also almost maybe potentially forced to consider how this level of heavily armed lunacy could only happen in the U.S. of A. That’s satire, folks. And the debate whether the depiction of violence glorifies or condemns said violence rages on, and it will never end.

But enough of that, y’know, whaddayacallit, thinking. We’re here to be entertained by a nice guy going homicidal — in self-defense, of course. Normal is essentially rooted in character, as Odenkirk’s Ulysses proves his adage by being the calmest person in a shootout, and therefore the one most likely to survive it. I realize that’s a tenuous thematic thread, but it’s omnipresent as Wheatley stages rock-solid action sequences notable for being visceral and gory, and therefore, immediate. The director and cast are good enough to make one forgive the product for its ironic love-song needle drops in the midst of scenes of mass carnage. Normal may not blow you away as it blows everyone on the screen away, but it ably gets the job done with equal parts thrills and laughs.

Our Call: 91 minutes of ridiculous, anarchic violence. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad, but Normal pulls it off with enough style and skill to be… is endearing the right word? Close enough, I guess. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.