At the start, The Hitman's Bodyguard seems like typical action fare. It took about 20 to 30-minutes to really win me over as it evolved into a wild and thoroughly offbeat action-comedy.
Samuel L. Jackson is Darius Kincaid, an incarcerated hitman who most testify in a trial at the International Court of Justice. Kincaid has a big price on his head designed to prevent him from making it to court, so it is up to disgraced bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) to get him there alive.
There is such easy chemistry between the two leads that it appears effortless and it makes the repetition of Kincaid constantly outfoxing the by-the-book Bryce easier to take.
Salma Hayek is a hoot as Kincaid's jailbird wife, Sonia, who has a colorful vocabulary, but then again, everyone in this movie has a colorful vocabulary. Then there is the flashback of how Darius and Sonia first met, which is a hilarious bit of violent carnage set to Lionel Richie's song Hello.
Elodie Yung, as Bryce's ex-girlfriend Amelia, is pure window dressing, unfortunately. She is gorgeous, there is no doubt about that, but she should have been given more to do.
There are outlandish action scenes abound here. The boat/car/motorcycle chase is exciting, and the fight Bryce has with a henchman in a hardware store is a laugh riot.
The Hitman's Bodyguard is one of the better action-oriented movies to come out this summer.
*** out of four
