#Tine Joustra | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

martens-movie-reviews · 7 years ago

Text

Released: August 18, 2017 Running Time: 1 hour 58 minutes

“The world’s top protection agent is called upon to guard the life of his mortal enemy, one of the world’s most notorious hit men. The relentless bodyguard and manipulative assassin have been on the opposite end of the bullet for years and are thrown together for a wildly outrageous 24 hours. During their journey from England to the Hague, they encounter high-speed car chases, outlandish boat escapades and a merciless Eastern European dictator who is out for blood.”

Hitman’s Bodyguard is a movie that caught me by surprise, as I had never heard about it until I saw a trailer that was either a homage or a parody of ‘The Bodyguard’ movie, even having Whitney Houston’s song during the trailer. The promotional poster is even the same theme and style, which is pictured below.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard – Source – VVS Films

The Bodyguard – 1992 – Source – Warner Brothers

I’ve been looking forward to this movie ever since. I went into this movie hoping that it was a fun, action – packed comedy with two great leads who have amazing comedic timing, and I was not disappointed in that respect.

I got to see this movie at an advanced screening on the evening of Wednesday August 16. I had originally won a pair of tickets to see the movie, and I had asked my brother in law to go with me as my girlfriend was working until 7, and the movie started at 7:30, not thinking she would make it in time. My sister got upset when I didn’t invite her, since she did not enjoy Atomic Blonde (the previous movie I brought her to), and she felt as if I owed her a good movie. It turns out that I won 2 pairs of tickets (as I entered every contest for these tickets), and so I asked my girlfriend to try and make it, and also got to make my sister happy and ‘pay her back’.

I’m happy to report that according to my sister, I have settled my ‘debt’, as she enjoyed the movie. This movie is rated ’14A’ for graphic violence, a torture scene, and a liberal amount of the swear word ‘Motherf-er‘.

Cast and Crew

This movie was directed by Patrick Hughes, a director whose work I was not familiar with when I originally her he was directing. His previous works includes 2010’s ‘Red Hill‘, and 2014s ‘Expendables 3‘. It turns out, I have seen one of his movies, and it’s what I believe to be the worst of the Expendables movies. I will say that I believe that this is a much better film than the Expendables movie, and in my eyes, has redeemed himself (1 bad movie, 1 great movie).

Pilgrimage was written by Tom O’Connor, whose previously only written one other movie, ‘Fire with Fire‘, which was in 2012. He’s not done any other writing work that I can research, so I was extremely skeptical about the overall story of the movie after finding that out, and I was right in doing so. The script of the movie was not a strong part of the movie, and if it wasn’t for the amazing chemistry and talent of the two leads, this movie would have fallen flat.

The cast of The Hitman’s Bodyguard features a bevy of talented actors such as Ryan Reynolds as the Bodyguard Michael Bryce, Samuel L. Jackson as the Hitman Darius Kincaid, Salma Hayek as Darius’ wife Sonia Kincaid, Gary Oldman as Vladislav Dukhovich, Elodie Yung as Amelia Roussel, Rod Hallett as Professor Asimov, Richard E. Grant as Seifert, Yuri Kolokolnikov as Ivan, Tine Joustra as Renata Casoria, and Joaquim de Almeida as Jean Foucher.

The Good

The music by Atli Örvarsson, was memorable and perfectly captured the tone and feel of the movie. The Cinematographer Jules O’Loughlin, did a wonderful job in capturing the beauty of the scenic cities featured in the movie, as well as capturing the action scenes without the need of ‘100 cut’ scenes to display the action.

The chemistry between Reynolds and Jackson was everything that I was hoping it would be. I can’t believe that they’ve never worked together before, and now I hope that I get the chance to see them work together again. They did a wonderful job of getting on the same wavelength for this film, and this is what carries the movie.

Hitman’s Bodyguard was marketed as a funny action movie, and I have to say that this movie was funnier than I expected. I heard more laughs, and I laughed more during this film than I have in anything I have seen all year. Now, comedy is very subjective, and I can understand why some people will disagree with me on this point, however, this is my opinion.

Outside of Reynolds and Jackson, who I’ve previously mentioned above, Yung and Hayek also did a great job in the small amount of screentime that they got in their portrayals. I feel like while Gary Oldman did a good job with what he was given, he was wasted as a villain in this movie.

The action in this movie, whether it be a car / motorcycle / boat chase in Amsterdam, to the hand to hand combat, to the many gunfights displayed in this movie were all really well shot and choreographed in my opinion. I loved the action in this movie, and there were some brutal moments in the film, and a large body count of endless ‘bad guys’, the action worked for me. I can understand that some people will wonder about the logic and question the amount of bad guys, but this is a movie, it’s not a serious depiction of events, nor is it trying to be. It’s a hilarious, fun, action packed movie that I enjoyed.

The Not So Good

The overall story of the film felt very flat, in the way that if you have seen any action comedy movie in the last 20 years, it’s a very similar plot to all the other movies. It’s very similar to another Reynolds movie, 2012’s ‘Safe House’, except this movie is the comedic version.

The twist and turns in this movie was very predictable, now, did this predictability ruin my experience in watching this movie? No, it didn’t because Reynolds’ and Jackson’s chemistry and comedy made up for it in spades for me, however, it was a weak point for the film.

The film was too long in my opinion, where it could have lost the opening scene of the movie, as it’s tone is very different than the rest of the movie. While it does show the horror of the villain it could have been shown differently. There were also other scenes that could’ve been cut or shortened to bring this movie to around 95-105 minutes instead of the 116 that we got. I loved this movie, and even I at one point was looking at my watch to see how much longer was left.

Final Thoughts and Score

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is hilarious, action – packed, and fun movie. The story was a little flat, and the movie could have been shorter, removing some scenes entirely. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds’ previous work. It was funnier than I expected and featured a song battle between the two leads that came out of nowhere and perfectly encapsulated the tone of the film. In the end, I would give this film a score of 8/10.

Have you seen this film, if yes, what did you think, if not, do you plan on watching it? Let me know in the comments below!

What movie would you like me to review?

Thanks for reading,

Alex

The Hitman’s Bodyguard Non – Spoiler Review Released: August 18, 2017 Running Time: 1 hour 58 minutes “The world's top protection agent is called upon to guard the life of his mortal enemy, one of the world's most notorious hit men.

#Action #Comedy #Movie Review

0 notes