REVIEW #130 Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021)

Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, directed by Patrick Hughes is the sequel to Hitman’s Bodyguard and follows Michael Bryce as he tries to leave body-guarding behind to better his mental state. He is then forced back into the game by his previous clients wife Sonia, needing his help to rescue Darius from the mafia. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

Ryan Reynolds returns as Michael Bryce and as usual delivers a charismatic performance, filled with comedy and hilarious stupidity. He might only really play one character in every film but there’s no denying that his comedy always lands, he has to be one of, if not the best in Hollywood at doing what he does. His chemistry with Samuel L Jackson is great and the two of them produce so many funny moments. You then add Salma Hayek into the mix and even Morgan Freeman and it suddenly becomes even funnier. However the negative to all that is that you’re never going to get any serious moments, the more emotional moments that can connect with audiences on a deeper level. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, we need silly films that entertain without the need to make the audience feel a certain way emotionally. After all, comedy is just as hard to successfully pull of as intense and emotional performances. There are even more actors to mention with Frank Grillo, Antonio Benderas and Tom Hopper all appearing in the film too. Those characters however, were a little cheesy and over exaggerated and didn’t necessarily generate a lot of humour. 

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

Michael Bryce, on the instructions of his therapist is taking a break from body-guarding but is thrusted back into the lifestyle when Sonia (the hitmans wife) gate crashes his holiday and asks for his help rescuing Darius. The trio then find themselves caught up in a plot to save the world. They certainly scaled up the second film, it got a hell of a lot sillier but that did mean there was a lot more comedy too. The main three characters land that comedy every time and Morgan freeman’s character Michael Bryce Snr was an hilarious addition. I do think there was just too much going on in the storyline, so many different aspects that made the film so hectic. It was easy enough to understand but it just felt too crowded for me. There was a basic level of character development with the relationships between Michael, Sonia and Darius but nothing substantial. This meant that the plot was hollow and apart from laughs and action, didn’t provide much else. Does the film need anything else? Well not really, you know what film you’re gonna get when you start watching but it does effect the score you can give. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

My favourite part of the film was the action sequences, they were captured brilliantly. If I’m honest it’s some of the most exciting and enjoyable action sequences I’ve seen, it almost reminded me of the church massacre scene from Kingsman. So chaotic, the camera work was excellent and everything transitioned so smoothly. The subtle special effects, made it gruesome yet realistic, so those were really enjoyable. The one that springs to mind is when they have to go undercover in the club, that was definitely my favourite scene in the entire film. However everything else was pretty basic, there isn’t any beautiful visuals or an outstanding score to comment on. But again, without wanting to repeat myself, you really don’t expect that level of high quality film making in a silly action comedy like the Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, so that’s fine. 

OVERALL (6.5/10)

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is a really enjoyable film that you can just sit back and watch with ease. It’s hilarious throughout and has some excellent action sequences. However if you’re looking for a film that will engage your brain, has excellent dialogue with a fantastic script and academy award level acting… this really isn’t that type of film. But you do need films like this to just switch off too and enjoy the silliness of it all. You can always rely on Ryan Reynolds to create a fun film. The thing that lets this film down is some of the side characters, the main villain and his henchman come across as cheesy and don’t contribute much to the comedy of the film so that was disappointing. Give it a watch and let me know what you think, it’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan