Back in 2017, ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard” was a very amusing action diversion, dumped into late summer as a last hurrah for a b-movie before the fall. It was a lot of fun, but I was shocked to see that it had generated a sequel, clumsily titled HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD. Worldwide, the original brought in about $175 million at the box office, greenlighting this sequel.
Look, any action flick with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson is bound to have entertaining moments. Throw in Salma Hayek, Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas and it’s bound to be great, right?
Well, not necessarily.
This time, the world’s greatest bodyguard Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is in therapy, wanting to leave behind his dangerous life and find Zen. When the world’s greatest assassin, Darius Kincaid (Jackson) is kidnapped, his vulgar, loud, kick-ass wife Sonia explodes into Bryce’s solitude, recruiting him to save Darius.
They’re soon involved with a Bond level super villain (Banderas oozing danger and peroxide blonde Euro-class), Interpol, every bad guy in Europe and a whole lot of action scenes that deliver the goods.
But the story is predictable and sloppy, the writing is all over the map and when they can’t think of a funny line, the dialogue goes vulgar, more vulgar and then lower.
I love a great dirty comedy, but there must be equal amounts wit, intelligence, AND vulgarity for it to really work for me.
Reynolds is damn funny, delivering hundreds of throw away one-liners. Jackson is Jackson and Hayek steals every scene she’s in as the foulest, toughest spouse in history. She’s absolutely mad.
The stunt team is excellent and there are some genuine laughs sprinkled throughout.
My favorite LOL moment was the way Bryce and Darius deal with a mega yacht’s underwater security detail that suddenly rises out of the water. Perfect.
But it all just wears out its welcome with about a half hour to go.
With a box office pull of about $38 million, audiences lack of enthusiasm for this entry likely saved us from suffering through the inevitable third film, ‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Kid’s Teacher’s Bodyguard”.
This one gets a C-.
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