Filmology Rating: 1.5 out of 4

Michael Bryce, played by Ryan Reynolds, has been living a rather useless life protecting drug addicted corporate executives after an arms dealer he was hired to protect two years ago was assassinated.  While Bryce longs for a life with better pay and more attention he grows a distrust for everyone leading him to only work for the the lowlifes at the corporate level.  Everything changes for Bryce when Darius Kincaid, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is needed to testify against dictator Vladislav Dukhovich, played by Gary Oldman.  Dukhovich has ruthlessly been killing his own citizens and only Kincaid is willing to provide proof that Dukhovich is the murderous dictator that he truly is.  Bryce is tasked with protecting Kincaid at all costs or Dukhovich will walk a freeman back into his country.      

Studios are using the term action too loosely.  Just because a character can at times creatively and unrealistically fire a gun does not make the film an “action” film; speaking honestly I would put any film with excessive violence for the sake of looking “cool” to be horrific.  Then when you try to advertise the film as a comedy and the film literally only has one moment to make an audience laugh I feel that you have failed completely at your job.  The Hitman’s Bodyguard is one of the most lifeless action movies I can remember seeing, which honestly shouldn’t have been a surprise since the film is directed by Patrick Hughes who directed The Expendables 3, which is the worst film in that franchise.

While some films like John Wick: Chapter 2 have a gun fetish, I can still respect the film for making stylistic choices with the film to make the action visually interesting.  It also helps when the characters are likeable and have realistic motivations.  The Hitman’s Bodyguard can’t decide on the tone that the film wants to have, the title would leave you to believe that the film will be an over the top comedy like any Mel Brooks film or even Deadpool, which was a film I seem to be the only negative voice on.  Or perhaps the film is going to be more on the lines of a bromance like I Love You, Man but the film barely has any bonding time between the two leads.  The film then goes down the serious route with a leader from a foreign country killing off his own people just because he has the power to do it, that goes to some rather dark places that are close to the Holocaust.  Writer Tom O’Connor either has never been taught how to capture tone in a script or the studio took the script away from him and turned it into something it was never meant to be.  Both are possible scenarios and both are probably slightly true. 

Perhaps this film will make people laugh, if those people like seeing Samuel L. Jackson shout profanity every other word. It quickly loses its shock value and becomes rather headache inducing an actor to become a parody of himself.  Jackson has given some outstanding performances in the past few years in films like The Hateful Eight, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Django Unchained,  but this film makes you question if he wants to act anymore, or if he just likes showing up to the set to get an easy paycheck.  While I understand that most of the world feels that Ryan Reynolds can only play characters like Deadpool now, I personally miss the charm that he brought to movies like Definitely, Maybe and Adventureland back when he was an actor who still had something to prove.  It seems that he will now forever coast on the graces of fanboys who love to praise his trashy work.  Reynolds will forever play a character type instead of trying to branch out and prove that he can actually act, which is a sad thing to feel when Reynolds can act.  

The biggest criticism that I hear when I talk about a movie that some people love is that I either don’t understand it or I’m just out of touch with what the genre is doing.  The Hitman’s Bodyguard is not a difficult film to understand, in fact the plot of the movie is too simple; and to say that I don’t understand the modern form of the action genre I would suggest those people go take a look at some of the fantastic action movies from the past two years: Baby Driver, Wonder Woman, John Wick: Chapter 2 and Captain America: Civil War. Those are action films that offer both fantastic characters and mind blowing action, something The Hitman’s Bodyguard can only dream about.   

Rating: Let It Burn

-Jonny G