The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard
As formal critics were resoundingly disapproving of The Hitman’s Bodyguard, it is no surprise that they have inserted the knives once more into its follow-up The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Less po-faced and open-minded audiences, though, will likely appreciate the raucous injection the movie adds to what has been a muted period for cinemas.
Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson) and his beloved Sonia (Salma Hayek) are reunited. Despite Bryce being on a sabbatical in Capri to recover from the psychological trauma his previous job as Kincaid’s bodyguard inflicted, Sonia bloodily (and hilariously) extracts him to help rescue Kincaid from being held hostage by mobsters.
Once this mission is completed, Interpol agent Bobby (Frank Grillo) intercepts the trio and forces them to track down a diamond-tipped drill possessed by Greek terrorist mastermind Aristotle Papadopoulos (Antonio Banderas). The journey to Papadopoulos takes them across Europe, with a stop at Tuscany where Bryce is reunited with his father (Morgan Freeman), which precipitates some of the most hilarious moments in the film.
Otherwise, as audiences will expect from a mildly satirical action-comedy, the main gags are based around the violence. While some of the savage slapstick moments are weakly deployed by poor CGI (such as Bryce being frequently run over), Sonia’s hot-tempered moments are farcically heightened. Indeed, comedically, Hayek is the funniest of the three. Though some may be troubled by the stereotypical presentation of her character as a fiery, maternally-obsessed Latina, her performance is not as derivative as Jackson’s, whose brash, expletive-filled persona is tiring at best. Having said that, Banderas makes no effort to even attempt a Greek accent, so there is more than one lazily conceived character here.
Despite these disappointingly irksome aspects, the production is laced with enough tongue-in-cheek moments to remind audiences that it is not to be taken seriously. Amid pre-Covid normalcy, its overblown nature may have been off-putting. For now, though, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is the kind of entertaining escapism many audience members will thoroughly appreciate this summer.
Francis Nash
The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is released nationwide on 18th June 2021.
Watch the trailer for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard here:
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