Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard review: Ryan Reynolds, Salma Hayek film is just another commercial action-comedy

2.5/5

Story: Ryan Reynolds’s Mike Bryce has decided to move on from the bodyguard life and choose some peace quiet in Italy. However, Sonia (Salma Hayek) finds him and demands his services to track down her hitman husband Darius (Samuel L Jackson) after he’s kidnapped. And she won’t take no for an answer. Darius is saved but the three are then forced to aid Interpol agent Bobby O’Neill (Frank Grillo) in stopping an international criminal Aristotle Papadopoulos’s (Antonio Banderas) plans to destroy Europe for imposing sanctions on the Greek economy. Thus begins their adventure.

Review: There are so many films that do not need a sequel, both mainstream Bollywood and Hollywood are testament to this. Standalone films almost seem like a novelty, and I, as a member of the audience often fear the butchering of decent enough storylines that have been neatly wrapped up for once and for all. The same is the case for Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard.

Reynolds, Jackson and Hayek return to this loud, messy and monotonous sequel to the 2017 action-comedy, which was fun enough. A film that you watch without having to exercise your brain too much.

All these A-list actors who have given us some fine performances over the years seem to have a lot of fun executing their roles. Reynolds and Jackson replicate the same chemistry as seen in their last outing. Meanwhile, Hayek’s every moment in the story is a delight to watch, as she takes things into her own hands. A strong, fiery female character given space to prove that she needs no man, is something that is hard to come by in commercial cinema. 

Banderas is as suave and charming as ever, whether he’s the voice of Puss in Boots, the masked vigilante Zorro or a unidimensional villain here. If I would recommend this film, it wouldn’t be for the story, it would definitely not be for Reynolds –whose newer onscreen personas are a diluted version of Deadpool – but for Hayek.

The action scenes are something you’ve seen before and will see again, they only act as fillers to extend the run-time. There’s a lot of casual gore too (people gunning down people, people covered in other people’s blood) that clashes with the otherwise light-hearted tone of the story.

Verdict: The conclusion? The USP of Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard has nothing noteworthy to offer in terms of its plot, its comedy or even its action. It’s a star wagon, a studio executive’s brainchild through and through aimed at enticing the audience back to cinemas (it released in June) after a long pandemic-induced slump. Though how well that plan worked can be seen in the abysmal box office collection and largely negative reviews from critics. 

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard is available on Lionsgate Play.