Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard | Film Review

I loved the first movie, 'The Hitman's Bodyguard', and while I didn't feel like it necessarily needed a sequel, I was excited to see how the story would continue.

Darius Kincade (Samuel L. Jackson) and Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) are no longer in contact. But when Darius is kidnapped by mobsters, his wife Sonia (Salma Hayek) persuades Michael to help. But soon the unlikely trio has to work together to save Europe from a madman.

My overall conclusion is that the first film really didn't need a sequel.

I was happy to be seeing more of Salma Hayek's character this time around. I loved her character in the first film and wanted to see more of her.

This film plays on the chemistry of Jackson and Reynolds, and hopes that this can make the film hold up. Unfortunately, while the chemistry is still there, many of the jokes fall flat, and even the ones that work don't land as well as you'd expect.

None of the characters were really developed that well. The background characters were only introduced to support the story of the three main characters, and the three main characters didn't get any development past the first film. This exact film could have been made with an entirely different cast of characters (and actors) and virtually nothing would have changed.

There were some great actors introduced in this sequel, such as Frank Grillo, Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman, but none of them were really used as much as they could have been. They all felt a bit wasted in this story.

That's not to say that the film was completely unfunny, because there were definitely some funny moments. But the humour never moved the story forward, and therefore it felt a bit pointless.

I found the storyline boring this time around, and I didn't really care about anything that happened. In fact, I saw the film a couple of days ago and I couldn't tell you what the film is actually about. It was more character-driven than story-driven, and unfortunately, the story was sacrificed for the characters.

Overall, this film definitely wasn't as good as the original, and all-in-all felt pointless. If you're a fan of the first film, you may want to see how the story continues, but if you haven't seen either of the movies, the first is definitely worth watching.

3.5/10