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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek
Director: Patrick Hughes
Running Time: 116 mins
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is an American film and the sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Forced into a sabbatical to clear his mind of bodyguarding, Michael Bryce soon finds himself caught up in another international conspiracy, this time alongside Darius’ wife.
While it was a bit long and perhaps a little too violent for its own good, I did enjoy The Hitman’s Bodyguard. This sequel rectifies the second of those issues to an extent, and while it too runs for a little too long, the movie does have a fun, throwaway vibe to it.
That doesn’t make Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard a great film, though. Yes, while it’s light and easy-going, with a little more cartoonish violence than last time out, the movie really struggles with a generic story, generally subpar humour and performances that don’t gel quite as well as the first film.
On the plus side, credit has to go to the film’s action sequences. While there might not be the most riveting stakes behind them, this movie spares no expense in delivering fun, popcorn action from start to finish, making the fights, car chases and explosions the highlight of the film.
Meanwhile, lead actors Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Salma Hayek all impress with charismatic and physical performances, although it’s fair to say that the trio doesn’t have the same character as the duo of the first film.
Where Reynolds and Jackson worked as a kind of good-cop, bad-cop buddy pairing, Hayek doesn’t quite fit into the middle, and while she plays well with Jackson, her role alongside Reynolds – also serving as a comic relief – just doesn’t come off quite as well.
As a result, the movie struggles to deliver the same level of lovable buddy comedy as its predecessor, an issue compounded by a screenplay that’s not particularly sharp – and doesn’t feature regular laughs at any point.
That’s no fault of the lead actors, but the fact that Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard has a couple of good jokes here and there – but doesn’t really try to do much else. It’s a light-hearted comedy, yes, but it’s one without the laughs to keep you fully entertained throughout.
As a result, more pressure falls onto the story, which is – for want of a better word – painfully generic. Yes, the movie is having fun with genre tropes, but as the comedy isn’t that hilarious, the story is more boring than a good bit of parody, and you don’t really care about who wins and who loses in the end.
With the exception of basking in the fun of watching things explode and people punching each other, there’s not much about Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard that really grabbed me. So, that’s why I’m giving the film a 6.6 overall.
