Joyce Glasser reviews The Hitman’s Bodyguard (August 18, 2017) Cert. 15, 118 mins
No right minded person would want to get up close and personal with an assassin, but who doesn’t enjoy a hit-man movie? The same goes for bodyguards. Only the prospect of dreamy bodyguards like Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator 2), Tom Berenger (Someone to Watch Over Me), Roman Duris (Heartbreaker) or Denzel Washington (Man on Fire) would make the notion of being trailed by an armed minder 24/7 palatable. So a comedy-thriller that has a bodyguard protecting a hitman has an inherent appeal. While The Hitman’s Bodyguard has its moments, the cartoon violence, ridiculous plot and lacklustre dialogue dampen the romance.
The story line – and the character types – will be familiar to anyone who has seen 48 Hrs, The Gauntlet, Eraser, Lethal Weapon 2, 16 Blocks and many more ‘witness protection movies’ – a subset of the buddy movie. It will also be familiar to the rare individual who might have seen script writer Tom O’Connor’s only other credit: Fire with Fire. In that film, state’s witness Bruce Willis forms a bond with the pretty Hispanic US Marshall assigned to his case and both become targets of a crime boss.
Interpol agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung) has to get a star witness for the prosecution to The Hague to testify at the trial of Belarusian warlord Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman with a mask of prosthetic facial scars). Since this evil thug – charged with genocide no less – has murdered all of the prosecution’s previous witnesses, Interpol resort to professional assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson), who is serving time in prison. Kincaid was interviewed for a job with Dukhovich, but being a moral hit man, he turned it down while somehow obtaining photographic evidence.
In exchange for getting his brazen, tough and foul-mouthed (we are supposed to laugh) wife Sonia (Salma Hayek) out of jail, agrees to testify. Kincaid, a pussy cat with Sonia, risks his life (and Bryce’s) making a detour to deliver flowers to her.
When the van transporting Kincaid is predictably ambushed and all the armed guards gunned down, Roussel rushes Kincaid to a safe house, conveniently located around the corner. Kincaid advises her not to phone her office as there is an obvious leak. Presumably to heighten the tension, the audience alone knows who that is.
Meanwhile, Roussel knows of only one person capable of getting Kinkaid to The Hague alive: her former boyfriend, former Triple A Rated Executive Protective Agent, Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds). Bryce and Kincaid have a past, however, and are mortal enemies. But Bryce needs to redeem his reputation, livelihood and expensive life style after his last big client was shot under his guard. And he remains hopelessly in love with Roussel, despite having accused her of betraying him and killing his client.
Samuel L. Jackson in The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Once the two enemies are on the road, we know (at least) three things. First, they will squabble like an old married couple in an attempt to make us laugh, with sporadic success. Second, they will be pursued by Dukhovich’s henchmen leading to the employment of dozens of top stuntmen. Second, the serious, by-the-book Reynolds will protect his charge, and the irreverent Kincaid, overly confident and reckless, will, for once, need that protection despite his superior skills. Third, the two will bond and the jovial, laid-back Kinkaid will give Bryce advice on wooing Roussel.
While the cheeky interplay between Reynolds and Jackson is the film’s main asset, it doesn’t match the chemistry between Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. Of course, neither Nolte nor Murphy sings the end credit song, Nobody Gets out Alive, as does Jackson, but you are unlikely to exit the cinema humming the tune.
Director Patrick Hughes demonstrated in The Expendables 3 that he can deliver over-the-top cartoon violence and he makes no attempt to convince us that Mr Reynolds and Mr Jackson are doing their own stunts. If The Hitman’s Bodyguard were a parody of the genre(s), it might be a whole lot funnier. One minute Kinkaid is crippled with a serious bullet wound in the leg and the next he jumping off roof tops and hobbling off at break-neck speed. If that isn’t the stuff of parody, nothing is. Although it is hard to take anything seriously genocide is something most of us do take seriously, which is another problem in a film.
Similarly, the filmmakers attempt to give Kinkaid some kind of moral high ground when he points a finger at Bryce and asks him who is worse: “he who kills evil motherfuckers, or he who protects them”? Neither man seems to have noticed that their high speed chases and gun battles in public places have resulted in the deaths or serious injuries of dozens of innocent bystanders.
While The Hitman’s Bodyguard might well lead to more lucrative Hollywood contracts for Hughes, it’s worth noting that this is another example of Hollywood luring a talented independent filmmaker with offers of work. Hughes waited ten years before writing and directing the 2011 low-budget thriller Red Hill, a modern Western set in Australia. Heavily influenced by the Coen Brothers, Red Hill is not perfect, but it is a promising debut with a lot more tension than he can squeeze out of The Hitman’s Bodyguard.
You can watch the film trailer here:
