Bob Odenkirk stars in a scene from “Nobody,” now in theaters and available on demand. Universal Studios

With hip, jazzy pop standards sprinkled in the soundtrack and a new chiseled look from star Bob Odenkirk, it’s hard not to find the bloody-action-fest “Nobody” at least a little entertaining.

The funnyman turned serious actor with roles like Saul Goodman in “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” (for which he deserves all of the awards for), Odenkirk dips his toes in the waters of the older action star a la Liam Neeson or Harrison Ford to generally solid results. “Nobody” takes films such as “True Lies,” “Taken” or anything from the Jack Ryan franchise and puts Odenkirk wonderfully in the role of a man with a certain set of skills.

Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) is a former agent with those three-letter agencies who gave it all up for an upper-middle-class life. After about 15 to 20 years of that, we see him stuck in the rut of monotony along with his two kids Abby and Blake (Paisley Cadorath and Gage Munroe) and wife Becca (Connie Nielsen), who barely talks to him and even goes so far as to put a pillow barrier between them while sleeping. He’s clearly bored out of his mind.

When his house is robbed one night he chooses to not take a swing at them, much to the disappointment of his teenage son and just about every other dad-like guy around him.

With echoes of “If that were my family …” running through his brain we see the rage build up quickly until he reaches his boiling point when he tries to retrieve some of the stolen items and then on the bus ride home he encounters a gaggle of drunk dudes who then proceed to hit on a young woman on the bus. Hutch snaps and beats the ever-loving crap out of them.

He feels alive again and even tells his wife “Remember who we used to be?” They both suddenly have found a spark of happiness again for a moment. But one of the men he beat into a coma is the brother of Russian conman and sociopath Yulian (Aleksey Serebryakov) who vows to find him and make him pay.

The action scenes work very well, which is not a big shocker knowing that Ilya Naishuller, who also directed “Hardcore Henry,” which was shot in an entirely first-person perspective, also helmed this.

Odenkirk does a solid job of pulling off the physical role while mixing dashes of humor in every once in a while.

But the script as a whole is a little disjointed with some dialogue feeling out of place including a sometimes random narration that pops in a couple of times without great effect or reason. The pacing also feels off at times, with everything being too easy and too quickly resolved and we miss a lot of the conflict that should make us feel more for the characters or at least flesh any side characters out more.

Regardless, the movie is still entertaining with all-out action that never really slows down and Odenkirk’s solid performance. While it stays pretty plot-driven throughout, the entertainment value picks up toward a satisfying conclusion that leaves a window open to another possible installment. Which if Odenkirk is back, I would be, too.

“Nobody”

92 minutes

Rated R for strong violence and bloody images, language throughout and brief drug use.

3 stars