‘Stuber’ on HBO: Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani Have Entered the Action-Comedy Phase of Their Careers

Last summer, back when summer movie season was still a thing, Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista teamed up for Stuber, an action-comedy about a tough-guy cop and his less-than-tough-guy Uber driver. The good news, for those who want to pretend the world is still normal for a minute, is that Stuber is airing on HBO tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

Directed by Michael Dowse and written by Tripper Clancy, Stuber finds Nanjiani’s character Stu, an Uber driver, essentially kidnapped by Bautista’s character, Vic, an LAPD detective hunting down a notorious drug lord. Those tuning in to Stuber on HBO tonight probably won’t be expecting the kind of comedy that earns Golden Globe nominations and Oscar snubs, and nor should they. But they probably can expect some fun back and forth between Nanjiani and Bautista, much of which revolves around the fact that Nanjiani is a wuss and Bautista is a badass. (Stuber came out before Nanjiani revealed his shiny, rippling muscles on Instagram, which he acquired for his upcoming role in Marvel’s The Eternals.)

Previously, if you’d told me there was a new comedy coming out that involves chasing bad guys, one hyper-masculine dude, and one normal human dude, I would have assumed that movie starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, aka the go-to action-comedy guys. But it seems Bautista and Nanjiani are in an action-comedy moment of their careers, both together and separately.

Like The Rock, Bautista comes from a pro-wrestling background. After playing the muscle in a few blockbusters, he broke out in Marvel’s Guardian of the Galaxy franchise, where he delivered some of the film’s funniest moments as the deadpan alien, Drax the Destroyer.

Nanjiani, on the other hand, is more of a critical darling indie comedian, or at least, he was before he became a big Marvel star. He starred for five years on the Emmy-nominated HBO series Silicon Valley, is a popular podcast guest, and of course was nominated for an Oscar for the script he co-wrote with his wife Emily Gordon, The Big Sick.

Now both Bautista and Nanjiani have not only Stuber, but both have another action-comedy on the horizon. For Bautista, it’s My Spy, which finds him as a soldier-turned-CIA-agent teamed up with a 9-year-old girl (Chloe Coleman). For Nanjiani, it’s The Lovebirds, starring himself and comedian Issa Rae as a couple who finds themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time in a murder mystery.

Interestingly, both of these movies were intended as theatrical releases this spring—again, summer movie season, RIP, remember when—but were bought by streaming services to release amidst the pandemic-related theater shut-downs. Paramount sold The Lovebirds to Netflix, while STX Entertainment sent My Spy to Amazon Studios, to be released on Amazon Prime Video. Neither have a streaming release date yet.

The point is Nanjiani and Bautista are both in an action-comedy phase of their careers, and this phase will not be stopped by the coronavirus. Who knows how long this trend will last for either actor—as stated above, Nanjiani’s gearing up to play a cosmic hunk in The Eternals, while Bautista is going epic sci-fi in the upcoming remake of Dune—but I’m certainly not mad about it. They’re both funny dudes! Action comedy away, Drax and Dinesh.

Where to watch Stuber