There are few actors with the comedic exuberance of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. Putting the two personalities on the same screen and giving them guns and cars sounds like a match made in buddy cop genre heaven. Even with a B-movie drop back, when two actors have the right chemistry, it doesn’t take much to be entertained.
In The Hitman’s Bodyguard Reynolds plays Michael Bryce, a topflight bodyguard whose career takes a tumble after one of his shady, high profile clients is killed under his watch. Two years later he is summoned by his Interpol Agent Ex-girlfriend (Elodie Yung) to protect incarcerated hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). Kincaid has made a deal with Interpol that will free his wife (Salma Hayek) from prison if he can make it across Europe to testify against a ruthless dictator (Gary Oldman) who wants him dead.
Production value seems to be the film’s biggest flaw as it carries itself like a B-movie from its stock music to its occasionally flimsy use of green screen. The story is also carried out with few surprises and although Gary Oldman is a phenomenal actor, his villain is grossly underutilized. But if you’re coming to see an action movie with Ryan Reynolds and Sam Jackson, should plot and ambiance really be your number one priority?
The dynamic between the two leads works just as well as you’d hope it would. So even though the script doesn’t do anything otherworldly, it succeeds in letting both actors be themselves. With Reynolds being snarky and passive aggressive, and Jackson a foul mouthed loose cannon, the film strikes the perfect comedic chord to keep the film thoroughly entertaining even through a relatively generic two hours of over the top action sequences.
Credit is also deserved for making the two leads more than just comedians. With Jackson’s Kincaid being a murderer of corrupt men and Reynolds’ Bryce being a protector of those same men, the film manages to raise some surprisingly interesting questions about the nature of good and evil. So even though it often carries itself like something you’d find in the bargain bin, The Hitman’s Bodyguard actually ends up being a fun ride worthy of the full price of admission.
FINAL GRADE: B
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