This film is about the two characters and the two characters only.

When a movie is about a wisecracking, sociopathic ex-hitman who finds himself under the protection of a wisecracking CIA agent-turned-bodyguard, there’s really nothing more to say about the plot. Just as we would expect, the dynamics of the clashing characters ultimately call for a tale of an on-going battle of the egos.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard, part of the last stretch of the 2017 summer movie season, tries hard to set itself apart from the average action-comedy. Director Patrick Hughes, known for The Expendables 3, apparently wants to make good use of the chemistry between the two actors, Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, without compromising the action.

However, we eventually sit through two hours of car chases and a trail of explosions that appear to lack originality.

For starters: When does a hitman need a bodyguard? When he is not being a hitman. The premise of the plot is simple, yet the unfolding of the events makes it more complicated than it should be.

Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is a former CIA agent who now works as a disgraced security expert seeking redemption after one of his clients ends up killed under his watch. Stuck in a downward spiral ever since, Michael is given a chance to redeem his career by Interpol agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung), who is also his ex-lover.

He has 24 hours to get former hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) from Manchester, England, to The Hague’s International Criminal Court in the Netherlands to testify against a war criminal (Gary Oldman).

The small details of the movie eventually complicate the plot, while the rest of the story unfolds like a typical buddy action flick.

Throughout the mission, we sit through gratuitously violent scenes and crisp dialogue that is a combination of both vulgar words and a forced sense of humor. In one scene, there is a singing battle between Darius and Michael as they try to annoy each other by crooning their own songs. It manages to be amusing, but at times, the script goes overboard with Darius turning the English language into a lethal weapon with all the cursing throughout the entire movie.

Additionally, the tediously overblown showdowns of a few scenes add more minutes than actual value to the plot. Typical to most Hollywood movies, a little romance is thrown in to compensate for the hostile and coarse plot.

The audience learns that Darius has a soft spot for this wife, Sonia (Salma Hayek). He goes above and beyond to keep her happy, even if it means nearly risking his life to deliver her favorite flowers just to make her smile.

With his romantic dedication, Darius eventually offers Michael love advice to mend a complicated romantic backstory with his ex-girlfriend.

Inarguably, the collaboration between Jackson and Reynolds was a good casting choice. In fact, this movie is their second pairing after sharing screen time for the 2013 animated tale Turbo. The two are also residents of different branches of the greater Marvel cosmos as Nick Fury and Deadpool, respectively.

Knowledge of the two actors’ collaboration in other movies builds the expectation of a good performance in The Hitman’s Bodyguard. However, the only problem is that the movie delivers an action-filled journey that seems to be enjoyed the most by Jackson and Reynolds themselves.

With almost little to no character development of the villain, the movie lacks the most needed impact in its story. The film tries to compensate these setback with mindless thrills, but they get boring quickly. We can still enjoy the occasional crumbs of meta-jokes, though, which may serve as the few memorable scenes of the movie.

Other than the humor, The Hitman’s Bodyguard lacks the cohesive continuity with distracting visual quality and lack of plot development.

— Photos courtesy of Lionsgate Films

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

__________________________________________________

The Hitman’s Bodyguard 

(Lionsgate Films, 118 minutes)

Director: Patrick Hughes

Written by: Tom O’Connor

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman