Yesterday I watched The Hitman's Bodyguard. It is not a new movie, came
out in 2017, but it features senior actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan
Renolds, Salma Hayek, and Gary Oldman. So I was interested to check it out.
Despite the sparkly cast members and my love toward action comedy genre, I have never heard of this movie until last week. A friend watched it on TV and recommended to me.
How the heck did this movie elude my attention? I immediately became super curious. Could this be a hidden gem?
The Hitman's Bodyguard also touches upon the subject of Belarus leadership. Currently, Belarus is undergoing a revolution to challenge the reign of Europe's last dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. I believe it is the reason why it was aired on television. Topical.
We have "The Dictator" which is a lampoon for middle east leaders and "The
Interview" which made fun of Kim Jong Un.
So, I was expecting that The Hitman's Bodyguard could be a great parody movie about a dictatorship in Belarus. But I was wrong.
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My Opinion on The Hitman's Bodyguard
The Hitman's Bodyguard is your run-off-the-mill action comedy movie with a touch of shallow romance. The story is about old rivals joining up together to defeat the ultimate evil.
The main protagonist characters are portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Renolds. The characters do have fun dynamics but there was nothing special about them.
Samuel L. Jackson was just playing as himself, just like in other movies which featured him. The good old "mother****ker" bad boy protagonist. Meanwhile, Ryan Renold is playing as an annoying straight-laced dude who doesn't know how to handle a girl.
It was fun watching the two characters undermine each other while trying to achieve a common goal at the same time. However, it got old fast. The duo was not iconic. There really was no defining moment for them to develop a real bond.
Their back story was told but not shown. It wasn't really developed in the
main story but told in series of flashbacks. Thus, I feel that the rivalry was
not really genuine.
Gary Oldman, portraying the evil dictator of Belarus, was underused. He was supposed to be the big end game. Instead, the conflict is mainly against some generic henchmen. It was such a wasted potential.
As for the romance, I don't care much about that. The main romantic conflict was just a silly teenager-level misunderstanding. Although Salma Hayek performance as Samuel's gf was entertaining. It probably just a matter of preference.
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The action part, the car chases sequence, I do enjoy them. They are undoubtedly cool. Even though "explosion behind the protagonist's back" is such a cliche, I always find it entertaining.
However, The Hitman's Bodyguard doesn't contain many memorable sequence. There were a lot of flashy explosion and shoot outs but there was no sense of danger or risk. I felt like I had already seen those scenes in other action movies. It was underwhelming and forgettable.
The best action part of this movie is perhaps the first big ambush involving Samuel L. Jackson against the goons. There is also the scene in which Ryan Renolds got thrown out of a car. That cracked me up big time.
The Hitman's Bodyguard is definitely not a bad movie if you just want a pure light entertainment.
In conclusion, The Hitman's Bodyguard is not going to be a memorable movie for me. It felt like a generic action movie with stale comedy. However, I do admit that I had a lot of fun when I watched it. I give The Hitman's Bodyguard a 3 out of 5!
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