Directed by: Patrick Hughes
Written by: Tom O’Connor
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayek, Elodie Yung,
Joaquim De Almeida, Kirsty Mitchell, Richard E. Grant
The secret to making an entertaining film is to endow it with great characters that are slightly strange, intensely interesting, somewhat silly, and immediately recognizable. That’s exactly what you get in this high-concept action comedy.
Throw away the plot; it’s not important. Forget reason, who needs reason anyway? Just coast along on the incredible charisma of its familiar and talented stars. And the chemistry here between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson is true comic perfection.
So what is this film? It’s exactly the movie you expect it to be, filled with everything you want to see, shootouts, car crashes, boat chases, bad villains, daring duo, even carpool karaoke. The Hitman’s Bodyguard turns out to be a lot of fun, an action packed, violence laden, foul-mouthed, late-summer surprise loaded with belly laughs that never takes itself seriously.
Here’s The Story-line
A ‘demoted’ top protection agent (Reynolds) is manipulated by his ex-girlfriend into guarding the life of his mortal enemy (Jackson), the world’s most notorious hit man. The two men are thrown together for a time-sensitive, explosively dangerous journey from London to The Hague. Chasing them with orders to kill is a relentless army of assassins put on their trail by a European dictator (Oldman) who is on trial for “crimes against humanity.” Will they make the court’s imposed five PM deadline for Jackson to testify, or will the dictator walk free? Will they thrash the assassins? Will they even survive each other? You’ll have to watch, laugh, and see.
Director Patrick Hughes (Expendables 3) uses his deft touch with action sequences to load this film with every conceivable chase, stunt, or violent action you could ever think of and then some. Fun to watch and worth every one of the many dimes spent to create them. Even the beautiful and talented Salma Hayek gets into the Gut Crunching Kick Butt Action. She, by the way, is terrific in the film as Jackson’s imprisoned wife.
But the reasons to see this film are its two-standout stars. Reynolds doing his self-effacing, slow burn personality thing and Jackson pushing his foul-mouth I’m always right follow me into the battle attitude, while they kill people and constantly argue and bicker with each other. It’s a joy to watch and a laugh a minute. I hope they do it again.
My take…granted the film is very violent and loaded with foul language, but it’s also one very entertaining romp. If you can handle it, it’s one of the better films out there this summer.
