2017's
The Hitman's Bodyguard was a decent action buddy comedy, but it was not
a film that screamed out for a sequel. While I enjoyed it in the theater four
years ago, it's not a film I thought about after seeing it. The sequel The
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard proves the filmmakers should have left it alone.
Ryan Reynolds plays bodyguard Michael
Bryce. His license has been suspended, but he's soon roped into service by the
wife (Salma Hayek) of his hitman frenemy Darius (Samuel L. Jackson) after the
hired killer has been kidnapped. The film then pivots into a plot about a
billionaire (Antonio Banderas) planning a devastating cyber-attack on Europe.
The biggest problem here is the script.
The plotting is lazy and indifferent, even by action movie standards. An
Interpol officer (Frank Grillo) is introduced in the first act and seems like
he'll be an important character, but then disappears for most of the remainder
of the film. Hayek, a talented actress, is reduced to playing someone who
mainly screams at people (and kills them). Reynolds and Jackson bicker and
bicker and bicker some more. That kind of back-and-forth between characters can
be funny, but it doesn't work when that's practically the only way the characters
communicate.
The end result is a loud, shrill, gory, mostly unfunny film.
