Certificate: 15

Running Time: 107 mins

UK Distributor: Disney+

UK Release Date: 27 March 2026

WHO’S IN MIKE & NICK & NICK & ALICE?

Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Jimmy Tatro, Keith David, Emily Hampshire, Arturo Castro, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Stephen Root

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

BenDavid Grabinski (director, writer), Andrew Lazar (producer), Joseph Trapanese (composer), Larry Fong (cinematographer), Tim Squyres (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Two gangsters (Vaughn and Marsden) and their lover (González) endure a difficult and dangerous night involving time-travel…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON MIKE & NICK & NICK & ALICE?

Vince Vaughn isn’t the only time-travelling anomaly in writer-director BenDavid Grabinski’s Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, for the film itself seems to have come from a completely different era. The early to mid-2000s to be exact, when mid-budget films such as this with wacky time-bending concepts were surprisingly more common than you’d think, whether it was The Butterfly Effect or 13 Going on 30 or even that Martin Lawrence movie Black Knight that nobody seems (or wants) to remember.

Twenty or so years ago, Grabinski’s film and its somewhat mellow, laid-back tone would have fit perfectly alongside all the others, but in 2026 it sticks out like a sore thumb. Beyond the fact that films of this mid-budget range are now more often than not delegated to streaming services rather than cinemas, as is the fate of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, its low-energy personality and familiar plotting reeks not of easy-going coolness but of general lethargy. In a bouncier and creatively strived movie climate such as ours, this film feels like a time-travelling relic that’s a decade or two late to the party, and not even the kind of relic that would make this an undiscovered treasure.

Grabinski sets the film during the nighttime celebrations among a group of gangsters who have gathered to celebrate the release of formerly incarcerated criminal Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro), the son of crime lord Sosa (Keith David). Nick (Vaughn) is an attendee at the party, alongside his wife Alice (Eiza González) and her secret lover Mike (James Marsden), Nick’s longtime associate and an assassin keen to quit the game for good. However, Mike’s hotel rendezvous with Alice is interrupted by Nick, who requests Mike’s help with detaining an unknown figure… only for the confused Mike to discover that his target is none other than Nick himself. As it turns out, the Nick that we’ve seen so far is from six months in the future, having travelled back in a time machine to prevent Mike’s unfortunate death that night, which comes after Mike is framed for being a rat among their fellow criminals, and so Mike and Future Nick and Present Nick and also Alice must work together to prevent Future Nick’s past from happening.

There are flashes of energy in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, particularly during a couple of action sequences that are elevated by some amusing stunt work and one or two fitting needle drops, but other than that don’t expect this to be a wild action-packed ride. Grabinski adopts a surprisingly more sombre mood amid a slower pace that pays far greater attention to the title characters rather than just the action, which would be admirable if it weren’t for the fact that there isn’t really much depth to any of them. Mike and Nick (and other Nick) feel so similar that they could be interchangeable with one another, particularly in how their respective actors portray them with the same kind of suaveness that’s perhaps a bit too relaxed for the baffling situation. Crucially, their chemistry with Alice is also lacking, for despite González’s easy charisma – of the three leads she comes off the strongest, despite having much less to do by comparison – there’s very little to convince you why she’d be drawn to either of her love interests, because they’re such flat characters with nary a hint of personality between them.

Because the characters aren’t strong enough to support a rather action-light narrative, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice quickly becomes dull to watch. Attempts at humour often tend to land with a thud, particularly during long stretches of seemingly improvised back-and-forths about sugar-free candy, the definition of chloroform, and an extended discussion about Gilmore Girls which ends up being one of the better scenes in the movie since it feels like Grabinski is actually letting these characters be characters. All the time, you keep waiting for some high-octane action to come along but it never really does, with even a surprise cameo from an action movie legend ending abruptly, and right when it looks like things are finally about to get interesting. Instead, it settles for the kind of big climactic set-piece you’ve seen plenty of times before, and aside from a few cool bits of choreography it doesn’t stand out as much as it perhaps wants to.

There isn’t much else to say about Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, for it just feels like a particularly mediocre time-travel movie from the 2000s that warped its way to twenty years into the future, and wouldn’t have worked today either. In a way, I wish that there was more to talk about, if only to get more into the blandly competent filmmaking or the fact that the hard-partying villains are a lot more fun to be around than our supposed heroes, but to do so would be to repeat a lot of criticisms I had with not just this movie but many of the other direct-to-streaming action movies that have come out the last few months and years. As the debate between theatrical and streaming distribution is beginning to reach a crescendo, one thing that few seem to be pointing out is how familiar a lot of streaming movies tend to look; their cinematography, their editing, their music choices, everything seems to come from the same place of reliable safety and un-adventurousness, and Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice falls very much in line with how, say, The Tomorrow War or Red Notice also take few filmmaking risks, even though they are significantly higher budgeted than this one is.

The point is, all these conveyor-belt streaming movies are starting to all look alike, and that’s a serious worry for the future of this industry. Now that is something that Vince Vaughn should be heading back in time to stop from ever happening.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is a low-energy action movie with time-travel that doesn’t reach beyond its limitations, offering a surprisingly lethargic tone and dull characters that not even a few lively moments can save from fading away.

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