The Hitman’s Bodyguard

The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Directed by: Patrick Hughes

Grade: C+

Ryan Reynolds plays a top protection agent whose assigned to get an infamous hitman (played by Jackson) to the trial of a brutal dictator in one piece. Naturally said dictator (Gary Oldman) still has some serious pull. It’s like the whole military under this guy is standing in their way and if they don’t make it alive, or even in time, he walks.

I enjoyed The Hitman’s Bodyguard but definitely because of the cast and performances elevating it. Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds have nice chemistry together. (And after Deadpool it’s fun to see Reynolds playing the straight man to Nick Fury’s way more out there character.) I mean these two are charming in most everything they do. That doesn’t change here.

I like the background given to Jackson’s character and at least the attempts to touch on the moral questions of what they do. However much like Bryce after awhile I appreciated when Jackson stopped yelling everything. There are also some nice moments between the two but I don’t want to give anything away.

Salma Hayek is also fun as Kincaid’s wife Sonia. It’s one of those not in it a lot but makes a great impression obviously having a lot of fun.

I also liked the ending at the trial. I’m surprised they went there and thought for sure they would stop his backup plan from being put into effect. Although that also made it kind of weird. This movie definitely wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be (no fault of the performers) Dukhovich is portrayed pretty seriously despite some of the over the top machinations his men go through to stop Kincaid and Bryce.

But along those lines I also felt like would a serious human rights trial against a former dictator ever come down to relying solely on the testimony of a former hitman? I’m not entirely sold on how Kincaid was the only one with actual documented information either. Interpol was presented as fairly incompetent even when they weren’t dealing with the mole storyline.

And while I like Elodie Young (from Daredevil and The Defenders) I wasn’t big on her relationship with Bryce and she really had nothing else to do except discover the mole- which the movie tells us early on. So it felt like her discovery was pretty much out of thin air.

As far as the action? Eh. It all looked good. I could follow everything clearly. I just feel like that’s definitely where they could have cut bits and shaved a few minutes off the movie at least.

Recommend: Yes. Mostly for the cast. But I definitely think it can wait for rental.