The Hitman's Bodyguard

This review may contain spoilers!

It takes a while to get under way, but once it hits it's stride you receive one of the better comedies of the year. I would give The Hitman's Bodyguard a 7.5/10.

Firstly I think it's best to get one thing straight right off the bat; if you're not a fan of Samuel L. Jackson's more comedic roles or Ryan Reynolds' performance in Deadpool then you probably won't find this as entertaining as I did. However if you are a big fan of these two then you're in for an absolute treat, not only are the pair a couple of acting powerhouses but they take their comedic roles and have an absolutely hilarious time with them. It's a film that doesn't try too hard to take itself too seriously, so you'll have plenty of moments where you'll be laughing at the absurdity of it all. There's quite a sweet element to this story around love and genuine connection; I liked this so much because it took an over the top action flick and managed to ground itself in some romance subplots that felt extremely genuine. The cinematography looked great for a comedy, all of the action scenes moved at a great pace and the film had a very crisp look to it. The fight sequences were very well choreographed, often displaying a creative flair in some of the action sequences. The editing also did a good job at keeping the film moving at a good pace visually, even dialogue scenes had a good sense of flow to them. The soundtrack for the film was pretty funny, especially when all the best tracks seemed to hit at once near the back end of the film.

Ryan Reynolds, who played Michael Bryce, is a pretty fun leading protagonist; his rather cocky self-assured role makes for a great contrast to Jackson's role. Gary Oldman, who played Vladislav Dukhovich, makes for an intimidating antagonist; Oldman doesn't bring out the most original role but he certainly molds the role into one to be reckoned with. Samuel L. Jackson, who played Darius Kincaid, is a mercenary figure who seems both wise and crass; Jackson goes to great lengths to mark his role as one who his very emotionally aware and a surprisingly moral figure.

However the best performance came from Salma Hayek, who played Sonia Kincaid. Hayek is built up to be this sweet romantic figure, a woman in distress that Jackson needs to free from prison when first we hear of her. Well Hayek certainly isn't bringing out that role. Throughout this film Hayek is having the time of her life cussing out prison guards and getting into hyperviolent bar brawls. It feels like Hayek rules the roost in the prison and she certainly steals the show wile she's at it.

This film spends the entire first half not really knowing what it wants to be, it goes between moments where it's far too serious and then swings the complete opposite direction into a more comedic tone. Frankly the film needed to find it's sense of equilibrium a whole lot earlier on. It doesn't help matters that the entire feature is rather predictable and never really goes to any great lengths to surprise you; it really is what you see is what you get. The score for the film comes off as rather corny, often going for a very cartoonish vibe that doesn't really suit the accompanying film.

Elodie Yung, who played Amelia Roussel, doesn't really have the chemistry needed to be Reynolds' love interest; Yung feels pushed into an action role that becomes the third wheel to Jackson and Reynolds partnership very early on. Yuri Kolokolnikov, who played Ivan, is very much the token henchman of the film; Kolokolnikov is really only present in the key fight scenes and doesn't have much purpose beyond that. Michael Gor, who played Livitin, is rather one-dimensional as the villain's attorney; he's often placed in the background to look and sound overtly sinister. Tine Joustra, who played Renata Casoria, is purely in the film as a token law enforcement leader; sadly a great deal of the characters in Interpol are really just placed there to spout pointless exposition. Joaquim de Almeida, who played Jean Foucher, is just more than a tad unnecessary in this film; in a perfect world his role and Joustra's would've been rolled into one to make the film a little less crowded.