I had only watched ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ two hours before walking into my screening. Seeing the first film so close to its sequel, I was honestly not looking forward to this sequel where we return to our two bickering hitmen in Ryan Reynolds as Michael Bryce and Samuel L. Jackson as Darius Kind. Now, Salma Hayek’s Sonia Kincaid is unleashed, and with the inclusion of supporting casts like Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman ‘Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ turned into a surprisingly more entertaining sequel than I thought I was going to see.
What worked with the first film still does in this film. The chemistry with Jackson and Reynolds is elevated even more with the inclusion of Hayek’s character. I loved her performance and she brought maybe more laughs in my theater than anyone else.
We get a little more depth in the relationship between Darius and Sonia, and that relationship intertwines with Michael as he is still trying to get back into the “AAA” bodyguard program. the story is a little convoluted at times, but the humor throughout makes the runtime seem fairly quick.
The villain is fairly weak, Antonio Banderas does what he can but can only do so much when the film is focused more on the three lead’s relationships. Morgan Freeman does well in his role as always and there is a really great, albeit an again predictable joke in it that made my audience laugh pretty hard.
Overall, ‘Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ is not really a great action movie, and not really a great comedy. It blends the genres in a pretty good way, but the jokes or the action never seem to kick into a higher gear. If you were a fan of the original I think you will have a good time with this one as well.
