Sunday, 6 March 2022

VOD: Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (dir: Patrick Hughes, 2021)

"Do NOT f**k this up!"
"Oh, we are DEFINITELY going to f**k this up!"

This unnecessary sequel that nobody wanted is as overblownly tiresome as the unlikeable original.  It is largely indulgent and crass, with little real purpose.  Salma Hayek provides a reasonable shining light with her sweary, over-the-top devil-may-care performance, whilst Ryan Reynolds here plumbs new depth of smugness and sucks the potential humour out of every line, and Samuel L. Jackson seems simply bewildered.  The film peculiarly positions the viewer to care about nothing that happens, as the film lurches from one frantic, desperate and noisy action set-piece to another, punctuated by dull and frequently unfunny dialogue stretches.  The film would have benefitted from much sharper writing and stronger directions for the characters and story overall.
 

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