Feeling very much like a throwback to action-comedies of the
1980’s and 90’s, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” arrives in theaters as the last of
the summer season’s big, mindless entertainments. The movie falls squarely in
the long tradition of buddy flicks, pairing two characters who are polar
opposites and forcing them to begrudgingly work together to survive: think “48
Hrs.,” “Lethal Weapon,” or “Theodore Rex.” It’s nowhere near the quality of
those classics, of course, but the standards of late-summer film releases are a
low bar, and one which “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” just manages to clear. You
could do a lot worse.
Ryan
Reynolds stars as Michael Bryce; once a highly successful security agent,
Bryce’s career nosedived spectacularly when a high-profile client was
assassinated on his watch. Now the only jobs he gets are the ones no one else
wants. He’s eager to earn back his triple-A status, which is why he reluctantly
accepts when his INTERPOL agent ex, Amelia (Elodie
Yung), calls in a favor. She wants him to protect his bitter rival, a notorious
hitman named Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson), and transport him from London
to The Hague, where he’s set to testify in the trial of a genocidal, Eastern
European dictator (played by Gary Oldman).
At first,
Bryce isn’t so keen to sign on; he holds Amelia responsible for his
professional implosion. But she’s desperate: it’s become clear that there’s a mole
in her organization, which means that an outsider is the only one who can be
trusted to deliver Kincaid by the court-mandated deadline. To make it there,
they’ll just have to avoid being killed by the endless stream of assassins and
mercenaries on their tail.
Along the
way, personalities naturally clash: Kincaid likes to fly by the seat of his
pants, and Bryce’s M.O. is strictly regimented; Bryce protects clients, and it’s
Kincaid’s job to eliminate them. They’re like the odd couple, if Felix and
Oscar were infinitely more foul-mouthed and periodically paused their bickering
to straight-up murder people.
Reynolds and
Jackson play off each other well, and their star-powered charisma helps elevate
the sometimes middling material they’re given. Salma Hayek provides another of
the film’s highlights, going way over-the-top as Kincaid’s wrongfully
incarcerated wife.
Director
Patrick Hughes (“The Expendables 3”) and writer Tom O’Connor keep to a recipe
of punchy violence paired with a screwball energy. The plot leans toward the
generic, but the tone keeps things lively, even if it never quite approaches
the levels of irreverent hilarity the filmmakers are aiming for. Some dodgy greenscreen work aside, there’s a couple of fun action
sequences, including a boat chase through the canals of Amsterdam and a fight
that sends Reynolds and a henchman crashing through a hardware store.
You know
exactly what to expect from “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” — everyone is working
within their wheelhouse in service of a well-worn formula. But as goofy
late-summer fun, it gets the job done.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2017.
