Film of the Week: The Hitman’s Bodyguard

I don’t want to give up any spoilers, and so I’ll try and explain things but staying vague at the same time. It’s certainly something that you need to decide for yourself. I feel this review is meant to tell you how the film works, not necessarily the story.

The unexpected team up of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson would, in theory, make one of the funniest comedy films of the year. The film is rated 15, so they can stretch their legs and hit the ground running, allowing them both to have fun. There are plenty of laughs and there are plenty of shocking moments, and there are plenty of exposition moments, however, The Hitman’s Bodyguard doesn’t juggle the three ingredients as well as it could have, giving the illusion that they’re stretching their legs, but are actually restricted by explaining everything, weaving through the shocking moments, and then finally getting to the jokes. Their chemistry is by far the strongest element, and there is so much more that can be done, but wasn’t achieved in this film.

It’s still an entertaining film, however, but that’s entirely because of their chemistry. It shines above all, and the story perfectly complimented that, but the way it was structured and told betrayed that.

Gary Oldman’s nails every role he has, and this is no exception. His character is the reason why there are shocking moments, but he doesn’t make the transition from shocking to the funny as clunky as it could have been. However, being a comedy film – it’s understandable that there would be a few scenes to keep the plot moving – the scenes were definitely not meant to be in a comedy, but instead in a serious political film, at least.

To sum up The Hitman’s Bodyguard, everyone’s performance was perfect and nailed their roles, making the funny scenes funny, the shocking scenes shocking, and the exposition scenes understandable. However, when put together in a film, they weren’t very coherent – it’s definitely a film that needed fine tuning. However, it is one that I would definitely watch again to see everyone’s chemistry. In other words, it just might be my guilty-pleasure film of the year.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)