Review of The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) by Bluedeadpool — 09 Sep 2017

The Hitman’s Bodyguard was a hit or miss kind of film. It had a very unique concept of a world-class bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds) protecting a contract killer (Samuel L. Jackson) that has been out to kill him before, and used their differences against them. I quite enjoyed it, but didn’t find myself laughing too much, as most jokes felt forced and Darius Cincade (Samuel L. Jackson) was very cliche due to his immaturity, which was the basis of most of the jokes in the film. In the beginning, both characters hated each other and the film only gave us a bit of backstory between themselves. Most of what they had both been through was told through references to events during dialogue, leaving their past up for interpretation. The action was fantastic and well choreographed, however it had some continuity errors. In the ending Cincade wastes at least 2 mags trying to shoot his target from possibly only 15 metres away, yet we learned that he shot Michael’s client from the beginning of the film from at least 400m away with one bullet. Not just this, but when Cincade breaks free from the van that was escorting him to court, he kills many, many, bad guys, and yet can’t hit an unarmed man running with no obstacles blocking him from being shot. He also knows exactly where Michael is without any explanation as to how (e.g when he saved him from interrogation) and is annoyingly always right. Can’t he just be wrong for once?

There was a clear distinction the film made between comedy and action, it never actually merged the two. It was always one or the other. The only time I remember seeing comedy during an action scene was just right before it ended, and it was a subtle joke. It’s way more action than it is comedy, and I’m perfectly fine with that because the action was intense, well paced and entertaining. The gore, while unnecessary at times, was done realistically and not too excessively, but was still unnecessary (like Darius pulling the bullet out of his leg for a whole minute).

All in all, the film was actually very good and perfectly entertaining, with some funny jokes and immersive action. I never lost interest when watching it and there would be a possibility I’d see it again if I had the chance.

I am glad to give The Hitman’s Bodyguard a 7/10.