Our film choice this week was The Hitman’s Bodyguard, an action comedy which stars Samuel L Jackson and Ryan Reynolds (who we had already seen in great films this year, Samuel in Kong: Skull Island and Ryan in Life, so hoping for more of the same).
We first became aware of it when it released an excellent parody poster of the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston smash The Bodyguard, but then the trailer came along and it really did make the film look hilarious with plenty of action.
The film coming from a script by Tom O’Connor, which went on the blacklist list for most wanted by studios in 2011 and from director Patrick Hughes, who had form for directing this type of film, having brought us the Expendables 3 appeared could not put a foot wrong!
So it would be fair to say we went in with high expectations for this film. The film starts showing us Bryce (Reynolds) on a protective detail of a Japanese arms dealer, it seems to have gone well to the last minute, until the arms dealer, once safely on plane is shot and killed.
This causes Bryce to be in disgrace and his career goes downhill fast, we then see him doing lower paid jobs protecting disgraced corporate execs with drug habits (the one we see is played by Richard E. Grant) and it is here we finally see some of Bryce’s gun and bodyguard skills.
We then jump to a story about Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) an evil dictator of Belarus. He is on trial for his crimes against humanity with another prolific hitman, Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) agreeing to testify against him, in exchange for the freedom of his wife Sonia (Salma Hayek)
Amongst those leading the case against Dukhovich for Interpol is Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung) who we know from the opening of the film and through events that unfolded, she is also the Ex-girlfriend of Bryce.
When Amelia is in an escort to transport Kincaid to court, she and Interpol are ambushed by Dukhovich’s henchmen and the 2 manage to escape. Amelia puts out a call on the only person she knows who can get Kincaid to court and also she now knows that she can not trust anyone else, given that it was known when the escort was taking place. We learn that this is because her assistant director Foucher (Joaquim de Almeida) has tipped Dukhovich’s men off.
We soon also learn that Kincaid and Bryce are known to each other and have history, which sees them straight away getting involved in a fight.
What follows is the 2 bodyguard’s attempts to get to court and the various situations they are put in to prevent it, mainly involving chief henchman Ivan (Yuri Kolokolnikov) which provides plenty of action, but we also get a buddy movie as Kincaid shares his love of Sonia, told through some flashbacks which involve more violent action) as he tries to help Bryce realise he still has feelings for Amelia and what he needs to do to get her back.
This film has some glorious moments of action and hilarious comedy moments but sadly they are few as what could have been an excellent 90 minute movie is ridiculously drawn out to just under 2 hours and at times it really does drag.
The film however does manage to keep your attention due to the great performances of Reynolds and Jackson but they really deserved better. This is also a film where you will feel you will have seen a lot of the best scenes in the trailer.
There are so many better buddy movies, 48 Hours and Midnight Run come to mind, but this is a perfectly acceptable action film but it is also instantly forgettable which is a shame. If you like action comedies; the 2 leads or just want to see Marvel’s Deadpool and Avengers Nick Fury on screen together this is worth a look but for us it was sadly a real let down.
You can find the trailer at the film website as well as see that bOdyguard parody poster again here:
Buy or rent from Amazon here:
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