And what follows is a predictably convoluted and messy journey with Michael and Darius through the English countryside and Amsterdam where they are being constantly pursued and shot at by Dukhovich’s forces. Of course, Dukhovich will do anything in his power to keep Darius - the one witness still alive and capable of pinning him publicly to various, different murderous acts - from making it to court alive.
Cut to two years later, and Bryce is spending every day driving cheap getaway cars instead of his preferred Jaguars, while protecting mid-level, drug-addicted lawyers from their pursuers as opposed to the global titans he’d been paid by before.īut Bryce is given one last shot at saving his reputation when he’s hired by his ex-girlfriend Amelia (Elodie Yung), an up-and-coming Interpol agent, to guard Jackson’s Darius Kincaid - a world-renowned hitman who shares a bad professional history with Michael - for the 24 hours leading up to when Darius will be called upon as a witness against a dangerous political dictator, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman). We’re introduced to Reynolds’ Michael Bryce on the day his life changes forever, when his status as an AAA-certified bodyguard to high-profile targets is tarnished as a result of the unexpected murder of a rich arms dealer he’d been hired to protect.
The fact that The Hitman’s Bodyguard manages to stay genuinely entertaining for as long as it does is a testament to the charisma of both Reynolds and Jackson on screen, especially since what should have been a tight 90-minute action-comedy winds up being unnecessarily stretched closer to two hours. Fortunately, both Jackson and Reynolds have managed to hone their onscreen personas throughout their careers, and the way that Reynolds’ sarcastic attitude butts heads with Jackson’s flamboyant cockiness leads to more laughs than anyone could rightly expect. It’s important then to go into The Hitman’s Bodyguard with the right expectations, knowing that your whole enjoyment of the movie will rest and die on how much fun you think you can have watching Jackson and Reynolds spar verbally and physically for almost two hours. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds constantly arguing and yelling at each other, usually about who’s the better killer of the two.
While over half the run time in The Hitman’s Bodyguard is dedicated to a series of chaotic and ridiculous action sequences, the other half of the film is all about quick cuts to Samuel L. But much like director Patrick Hughes’ previous film, The Expendables 3, the film’s set pieces turn out to be little more than obstacle courses for the film’s stars to run through.
With its set pieces neither impressive nor poor, it lacks the rhythm and visual artistry found in films like John Wick, Atomic Blonde, or The Raid, and feels more related to over-the-top, goofy '90s action flicks like Broken Arrow or Bad Boys. The Hitman’s Bodyguard is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a film that finds itself sitting comfortable in the mid-level arena of modern day action films.