When Hitman Met Bodyguard
I don’t care what people say I love rom coms. That’s right, the cheesy ones that get the worst ratings by critics and those ones that always end up on 5 or 6 on IMDB. I think that nowadays there isn’t enough of them, they appear to have moved on to just really bad romcoms you find on Netflix that are about some teen trying to date someone through their iPhone. It just isn’t right and cinemas are missing these cheesy flicks. This is where The Hitman’s Bodyguard comes into play.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard simply follows a bodyguard, Ryan Reynolds, who has to protect a notorious hitman, Samuel L Jackson, and safely deliver him to a court hearing in Amsterdam so that he can rat on an evil war lord. Yes, it has rom com written all over it I know. All of that is the foundation that is the surface of the film but at its core where the film is its best and it’s funniest is the three romantic couples.
There’s Jackson’s character, Darius Kincade, and Salma Hayek’s character, Sonia Kincade, a crazy couple whose relationship is always on edge because Sonia wants to kill her husband but only ends up loving him more. Their relationship is the second funniest in the film as it’s filled with ridiculous stories and moments that shock and just down right mental.
There’s Reynold’s character, Michael, and Elodie Yung character, Amelia, who are the less experienced couple. The typical one person did the other person wrong or at least they thought they did scenario which leads to Reynold’s new found talent of acting like a funny but smart idiot ‘cough cough’ you know Deadpool. They have the backstory that a similar or more like slightly less crazy but still weird backstory that Darius and Sonia have.
Lastly, there’s Michael and Darius, the couple that the whole film is set up for. The bromance of the two is the highlight of the film as they go from hating each other to loving each other to hating each other to loving each other. The two of them are hilarious when they get their time to explain to each other what they’re doing wrong in their other relationships. The back and forth banter never really gets old and most of all, mixed in with the other two relationships, this relationship single handedly saves the film.
It isn’t by any means a perfect film, I mean I could go on about some problems like how the special effects of the fire used in the film just didn’t look right or maybe they could’ve had a little less over the top action in the film, but I’m in a pretty good mood so I’ll let it slide. If it wasn’t for the strong and hilarious relationships in the film then it would be, well, not great but thankfully they’re in the film.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a strange return for rom coms in cinemas and I hope that it does well and other studios try and create their own ridiculous rom coms like this one. I went in expecting it to be a solid 5 out of ten and ended up laughing and actually enjoying it more than I had thought I would. The Hitman’s Bodyguard won’t go down as an amazing film but it can take pride in knowing that it’s ridiculous relationships are surprisingly realistic and it’s really funny when it hits its target.