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THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD (2021)
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard poster

CAST
SALMA HAYEK
SAMUEL L. JACKSON
RYAN REYNOLDS
SIMON ANDREU
ANTONIO BANDERAS
MORGAN FREEMAN
REBECCA FRONT
CAROLINE GOODALL
RICHARD E. GRANT
FRANK GRILLO
TOM HOPPER
KRISTOFER KAMIYASU
ALICE McMILLAN
GABRIELLA WRIGHT
MILTOS YEROLEMOU

BASED ON CHARACTERS CREATED BY
TOM O’CONNOR

SCREENPLAY BY
BRANDON MURPHY
PHILLIP MURPHY

EDITED BY
MICHAEL J. DUTHIE
JAK HUTCHINGS

MUSIC BY
ATLI ORVARSSON

PRODUCED BY
CHRISTA CAMPBELL
LATI GROBMAN
MATTHEW O’TOOLE

DIRECTED BY
PATRICK HUGHES

GENRE
ACTION
COMEDY

RATED
AUS:MA
UK:15
USA:R

RUNTIME
99 MIN


Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard image

The crude hyper step-cousin in the espionage film family, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard just barely succeeds on the performances of its three leads, with its foul-mouthed comedic skits bettering the nauseating action scenes.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard was a surprise hit when released in 2017, grossing over $170 million on a $30 million budget. While box-office wise the idea of a sequel makes sense, filmmaking wise the appeal just wasn’t there for the continued adventures of AAA rated bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) and f-bomb throwing hitman Daruis Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). Yet here we are with The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, a film as ridiculous as its title, yet thanks to its spirited performances, won me over. Barely.

The film begins with Michael in an existential funk after losing his AAA accredited rating due to the misadventures in the first movie. On a “sabbatical” and vowing not to kill anyone, Michael’s mental break is interrupted by Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek), the hot-blooded, trigger happy wife of Daruis. She convinces Michael (in suitably brutal fashion) to rescue Darius from heavily armed criminals with an axe to grind, a mission that leads them into the path of a world domination plot by Spaniard-Greek criminal mastermind Aristotle Papdopolous (Antonio Banderas.)

Story-wise there is not much weight to The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. A ridiculous villain-takes-over-the-world plot is used merely as an excuse to bring the band back together, with the stakes as light weight and forgettable as the action scenes.

So far in his Hollywood career, Australian filmmaker Patrick Hughes has not matched the tense-filled action filmmaking of his homegrown debut Red Hill. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard see’s Hughes utilise a bigger budget and big stars, yet the fast-paced nauseating shaky-cam style displayed here shows a lack of imagination and lazy execution, the worst kind of throw-crap-on-a-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks filmmaking that is memorable in its generic approach.

Countering is the films go for broke approach to comedy, that thankfully its trio of star actors deliver with spirited gusto. Of the three Reynolds is the highlight in his portrayal of a sad-sap bodyguard thrown into a scenario where if a bullet doesn’t kill him, the horny shenanigans of his psychotic partners in crime will surely drive him insane. Even Salma Hayek, in all of her incoherent, chesty exuberance, brings an addictive energy to a film that is a mess, yet a mess that aims to entertain any which way it can.

 

***

 

 

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