The Hitman's Bodyguard

At times it grinds a lot in its blend of crazy buddy comedy with serious ideas and elements (Gary Oldman's villain is too one-dimensionally psychopathic for such a lightweight film), and the pacing is uneven depending on the attractiveness of each character, but the two title characters are so entertainingly sketched and their confrontations so well motivationally set, transformative, and embellished, with a supporting character (Hayek’s) that so perfectly embodies my idea of a badass femme fatale, and the action scenes so accurately combine adrenaline with hyperbole that I can't help but hum contentedly and recommend this action flick with an A-list cast; for Samuel's sake alone, who drops one firecracker after another and delivers his third best role after Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight. 70% (22/08/2017)

I like movies like this a lot, and there hasn't been a classic action buddy comedy in a long time (no, The Nice Guys is not a classic action buddy comedy), so I was quite excited. And left the theater pretty disappointed. The Hitman’s Bodyguard always manages to score a few points on something, but after a while it trips over its own feet. Patrick Hughes does come up with and shoot some good action scenes, and a couple of them are excellent, but all of them are accompanied by completely inappropriate and ultimately annoying music. Samuel L. Jackson enjoys his role exactly as one would expect, but, unfortunately, Ryan Reynolds is usually next to him playing a depressed, boring and annoying buffoon. For a while it seems like an easygoing and funny film, only to switch at some points into a rather depressing and unnecessarily serious one. Well, the result is a mess that sometimes goes excellently, sometimes terribly and mostly kind of mediocre. After its clever and successful marketing, I expected a lot more. (21/08/2017)

A romp full of the best lines from start to finish. Jackson is God and Reynolds in Deadpool mode (in fact this could be a prequel). Awesome action, locations atypical. And the last time I saw such a superb chase (boat, motorbike, car) was in Jackie Chan’s Armor of God. Fucking Prague! (28/01/2018)

Though The Hitman’s Bodyguard has some pretty crazy humor, it’s less funny than you’d expect. But you get used to it and it works better in the last third, as does the chemistry between Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, who would need a more sensitive director’s hand to guide them. The Hitman’s Bodyguard wants to be a cool tough-guy comedy, but falls into superficial arrogance (like the worst moments from Michael Bay). This fault is mostly displayed by the character played by Salma Hayek, who was not a fortunate casting decision. The action is abundant and decently loud. I was mostly pleased with the setting in the streets of Amsterdam, which we do not get to see often enough. (08/09/2017)

Hughes doesn't pack top of the range action like his colleagues Stahelski or Leitch, so even if it is supposed to look like that of John Wick or Atomic Blonde, it's not as good – some of the scenes, actually, look like out of a Van Damme B-movie made in Romania. But that's one of the few downsides of an otherwise very laid-back, at times very entertaining film packed with one-liners that is dominated primarily by the two leads, the iconic villain played by Gary Oldman, who is still doing his thing and still entertaining us, and Salma Hayek, who is 50 and, quite incomprehensibly, still looks 30. I don't think you'd want to see it repeatedly, because you'd miss the moment of surprise and realize what a load of crap it actually is, but it's fine lightweight disposable entertainment. (19/08/2017)