The world’s most lethal odd couple – bodyguard Michael Bryce and hitman Darius Kincaid – are back on another life-threatening mission. Still unlicensed and under scrutiny, Bryce is forced int...
7 out of 10 was the original score I gave to the Hitman’s Bodyguard back in 2017 but looking back, I’m convinced that was on the entertainment factor alone due to the easy-going action and Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds chemistry together. If you were to take that away and take into consideration the action cliches, the drab look of the movie and how mediocre the thing is overall, I’d give it a solid 5 nowadays.
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, however? Ehhh, this is about the same.
It’s your pretty standard fare; literally like every other mid-tier action flick we get nowadays with all the ever-so familiar action-comedy tropes that have been done to death decades before: gorgeous locations and moderate use of the production design? Check. Competent actions sequences with plenty of shooting and decent cinematography with sporadic but clear editing? Check! Decent performances from a likable cast that may or may not be phoning it in for a quick paycheck? Check! Interchangeable layers of comedy that sometimes hits its mark and sometimes doesn’t? Check-a-doodle do!
I will say this though: I did find the dialogue a little more witty compared to the first one; feels more improvised than scripted which speaks to how talented these guys really are. As an unhinged 007-style plot that’s about as frantic and rowdy as one would expect going into this, it fits the billing as a Saturday morning cartoon so dashed off and irrelevant, it was almost worth watching just to see how over the top it would actually go. Amid the violence and the humor is a….message about embracing who you are and not seeking validation from others (again, been there, done that) and ok, I admit the ending got me laughing a lot.
Unfortunately, the novelty behind it’s presentation leaves little way too many holes to even be considered bulletproof.
There’s off-putting CGI, terrible green screen, way too much focus on Salma Hayek’s cleavage, director Patrick Hughes has trouble balancing the violence with any shred of heart as opposed to what happened the first time around and compared to the first film, this one is so ridiculously cartoonish, yet half the time they keep trying to play it straight, which only contradicts the tone it was meant to establish. Even if that wasn’t the case, the stuff that happens here is sometimes too ridiculous to suspend your disbelief on and excuse me, but how the hell do you waste Morgan Freeman? You can’t do that!
Seriously, the fact that I almost forgot the first film existed probably wasn’t a good sign going in. I guess objectively speaking, I found myself enjoying it a little bit more than the first because of how quickly it dives into clinical insanity but it’s predecessor didn’t really set the bar that high to begin with. If you really want to see Nick Fury and Deadpool get on each other’s nerves again no matter what the circumstances ahead lie…..knock yourself out.
