Release date: 17th August 2017/Watch the trailer here
The trial of the century – that of ruthless Belarusian dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) – will amount to nothing without a testimony from a key witness. With Dukhovich’s men killing all potential witnesses, only one remains: notorious hitman Darius Kinkaid (Samuel L. Jackson). After the Interpol team responsible for transporting Kinkaid to The Hague for the trial is compromised, agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung) enlists the help of an outsider: disgraced bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), who is looking to earn back the ‘triple A rating’ that he lost following the death of one of his most high-profile clients.
It shouldn’t really work, but surprisingly it does; in large part due to the undeniably fantastic chemistry between Reynolds and Jackson. The Hitman’s Bodyguard follows the duo as they attempt to make their way from England to the Netherlands, which is no easy feat with Dukhovich’s relentless henchmen on their tail, as well as the constant bickering and one-upmanship between Bryce and Kinkaid.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard is being marketed as an action-comedy, and it succeeds in both elements for the most part. The action is nothing we haven’t seen before and the comedy follows the tried-and-tested formulas that are familiar to each actor, but it makes for a shamelessly fun way to while away a couple of hours.
The supporting cast are frustratingly underused, however: Salma Hayek, as Kinkaid’s imprisoned wife Sonia, is given little more to do than gratuitous cleavage shots and swearing in Spanish, while relegating Gary Oldman to nothing more than a questionable accent is practically criminal – but it’s also a film that isn’t pretending to be anything more than a vessel for some violent Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson hijinks.
And while this works for the most part, it does begin to wear thin once the film passes the ninety-minute mark. The Hitman’s Bodyguard should have been short and sweet, but instead it overstays its welcome by about two car chases and three shoot-outs too many. Confusingly, it also dedicates far too much runtime to a romantic subplot between Bryce and Agent Roussel, and any attempts at evoking an emotional reaction miss the mark entirely. All the same, The Hitman’s Bodyguard achieves what it sets out to do and has a lot of fun while doing so – and no one was really expecting anything more than that.
★★★
Films With Isabelle 