Starring
Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Elodie Yung, Gary
Oldman, Tine Joustra, Yuri Kolokolnkov, Joaquim de Almeida. Directed
by Patrick Hughes. (2017, 118 min).
For
the longest time, I couldn't stand Ryan Reynolds. There was something
about his performances that just rubbed me the wrong way...a juvenile,
smug, frat-boyish quality he brought to his roles that almost always
sucked me right out of the movie. However, he was terrific in the
underappreciated black comedy, The Voices, the first time I
thought he was truly convincing. And of course there's
Deadpool. Really, it's hard to
imagine anyone else as the title character.
Maybe
I'm just getting used to him, or maybe he's more versatile than I
first first gave him credit for, because not only did I enjoy him in
The Hitman's Bodyguard, he's the best part of the movie. No
small feat when your co-star is Samuel L. Jackson. Then
again, Jackson doesn't exactly spread his wings, playing yet-another
expletive-spouting badass (though he's still amusing). Reynolds is
mostly the uptight straight-man to Jackson's more cavalier antics,
but his often-deadpan performance when reacting to the surrounding
mayhem is pretty damn funny.
 |
| "Ryan, how do you deal with crazy Marvel fanboys?" |
The
plot itself is strictly by-the-book. Down-on-his-luck professional
bodyguard Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is coursed by his former
girlfriend, Interpol agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung), into
escorting notorious killer-for-hire Darius Kincaid (Jackson) to
testify at the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands.
Kincaid is the only living witness to atrocities committed by
tyrannical Belarian president Vladdislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman, who doesn't
really stretch himself either). Duknovich stops at nothing trying to keep
Bryce & Kincaid from reaching the courthouse alive.
 |
| Sam salutes his critics. |
The
Hitman's Bodyguard could have been a straightforward - and
generic - thriller, but goes the still-pretty-generic buddy-comedy
route: Bryce & Kincaid first want to kill each other, but are
forced to work together in order to survive before finally developing
mutual fondness and respect. Still, the formula more-or-less works,
mostly thanks to the two leads, who play off each other well. On the other hand, Salma
Hayek as Kincaid's fiery, foul-mouthed wife is sort-of wasted. She's easy on the eyes as always, but her character is strictly a plot
device who, aside from a few flashbacks, doesn't share any scenes
with the rest of the cast.
Strewn
throughout the plot is a lot of gunplay, destruction and a surprising
amount of bloody violence. These segments are well-executed, even
played for laughs on occasion (there are moments that approach
black comedy), though, like the story, no one's exactly reinventing
the wheel here. Still, the two leads' chemistry together ultimately
makes The Hitman's Bodyguard worth checking out. They're
obviously having a lot of fun and fans of this sort of thing likely
will, too, even if they've seen it all before.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
FEATURETTES
(mostly of the promotional variety): "Big Action in a Big
World"; "The Hitman's Bodyguard: A Love Story";
"Hitman vs. Bodyguard" (all film clips); "Dangerous
Women"
DELETED/EXTENDED/ALTERNATE
SCENES
OUTTAKES
DVD
& DIGITAL COPIES
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD...LIKE CAT CHOW
No comments:
Post a Comment