The bodyguard Michael Bryce continues his friendship with assassin Darius Kincaid as they try to save Darius’ wife Sonia.
Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is traumatized from his time bodyguarding Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). He goes on sabbatical just to be pulled back into bodyguarding by Kincaid’s wife, Sonia (Salma Hayek), who recruits him on a rescue mission to save her husband.
I would say Hayek is actually the funniest one out of the main trio. I do like that we get to see more of her here than in the first film. She mostly just yells and curses in Spanish, but she does have a few action scenes. But while there is plenty of action in the film, I never found it to be impressive or engaging – it felt redundant. The plot also does not make much sense at all. The whole film just felt like noise honestly.
The Kincaids want to start a family but are having trouble conceiving while Bryce wants nothing more than to get his bodyguard license back. The characters just whine about their situation throughout the whole movie, it just gets annoying. Also, in the beginning, Darius seems to want nothing to do with Bryce, which confused me because I thought they finally got along at the end of the first film. But I did find the first film to be forgettable, and this film is kind of forgettable as well.
There are plenty of other well-known actors in supporting roles from Morgan Freeman to Antonio Banderas. Banderas plays a Greek millionaire named Aristotle Papadopolous who is set on destroying Europe. And while this should be a fun role, he is just so painfully one-note. I could not enjoy him in this role even though I wanted to. And it’s not due to Banderas’ performance, it was how the character was written.
I also have been kind of down on Reynolds for a while now. I find his shtick to be tiring, it works great as Deadpool, but there are only so many times he can play a smart-mouthed action hero before it starts to wear on you. Jackson was fine, like Hayek, he mostly just curses and has some action scenes. I don’t even know why Frank Grillo was in this film, but his Boston accent disturbed me for some reason. He was one of the most annoying characters in the film and felt totally unnecessary.
Overall, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” may be a nice movie to turn your brain off to. Honestly, the funniest thing in this film to me was the concept of bodyguard awards but I was semi-entertained by the film even with its nonsensical plot due to its star power. If you are a fan of the first film, you will probably enjoy this one too.
In Theaters Wednesday, June 16th
