Vince Vaughn Plays Doubles in SXSW Comedy ‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’

Vince Vaughn stars opposite himself in the action comedy “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” an R-rated gangster movie that had SXSW in stitches during its Saturday night world premiere.

Out March 27 on Hulu, the film, directed by BenDavid Grabinski, follows mobster Nick (Vaughn), who travels back in time so that Future Nick and Present Nick can save fellow gangster buddy Mike (James Marsden) from being murdered. Eiza González plays Alice, a woman caught between these two dangerous men, as the four of them (does that add up?) face assassins, kingpins and coke-sniffing henchmen. The ensemble includes Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Stephen Root, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire and Arturo Castro.

Grabinski introduced the film by reading some remarks written on his phone. “This following speech was saved in my Google Docs as the speech I’d give if ‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’ wins an MTV Movie Award,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure those don’t exist anymore, which sucks shit.”

Setting the stakes, he added, “Movies are the best thing in the entire world. Movies are why I get up in the morning. Movies are why I exist. Movies bring me joy, and you are all about to watch a fucking movie. It’s a movie made by a major studio with movie stars and jokes and fights and surprises and explosions, a lot of music and a time machine.”

The movie is full of laugh-out-loud moments and absurd, violent fight sequences. And — no spoilers — a famous action movie star makes a surprise cameo as a hit man.

“It’s just so nice to have an original idea made,” Vaughn said during a post-film Q&A.

González, who also stars in another SXSW headliner, “I Love Boosters,” said she was “terrified” signing onto “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” because “I’ve never done comedy.”

“Be kind to me,” she pleaded with the audience. “This is the first I’m doing it. I was really nervous.”

Vaughn assuaged his co-star’s nerves: “I thought you were super funny. It’s so surprising to hear you say you were nervous, because you were so confident. You had so many great ideas, and I thought you were terrific in the film.”