Hitman & Bodyguard 2

My wife and I settled into a nice evening looking for light, funny entertainment, so we spun up this BluRay disc from our public library. We got almost halfway when I hit 'pause' and asked, "Are you enjoying this movie?" She wasn't and I had only gone that far because she was still in the room.

On the surface the story has elements necessary to make an entertaining movie, an unlikely team of three have the task of tracking down the bad guys and saving the world. But we were overwhelmed right away by two big problems:

First all the dialog is filled with filthy language, not just a little but seemingly the script tries to put as much filthy language as is possible. Just for the sake of filling the script with filthy language. All the way through the movie. For us it would be like trying to have a nice steak at a restaurant and the waiter coming by every 30 seconds and spraying pepper sauce into our faces. Now we're not prudes, but when dialog has such pervasive filthy language then soon all meaning goes away because we find ourselves wondering "Why do they think so much filthy language is entertaining?"

The second big problem is one scene after the other after the other with gun battles. From start to finish (I skipped around after the 45 minute mark to get a feel for how the second half of the movie is presented) all we get is shooting and more shooting. Just so much that soon all meaning of the story goes away.

Now we realize some viewers really like this sort of stuff, they are entertained by it, but to us it is a mystery. There are so many good TV shows and movies, how can someone be entertained by this sort of movie? We can't comprehend it.

I thought this film was very entertaining. It is action packed, and has lots of very funny jokes. I enjoyed it a lot.

The original film was great. Loved it. Original. Funny and watchable. Not Oscar winning but a great watch.

This film carries on with the fun characters and introduces a super brain numbing storyline to waste hours of our lives. I can't begin to explain how much of a parody this story is. Not in an intelligent way. But in a painfully lazy way. It is like they had to make a lockdown film and just couldn't care less if it made sense or not.

I want to write a more in depth review but this film is bad. That's all you need to know.

I did thoroughly enjoy the 2017 movie "The Hitman's Bodyguard", so when I saw that there was a sequel coming out and seeing that they vastly improved on the cast, I must admit that I was thrilled to get to sit down and watch the 2021 movie "The Hitman's Bodyguard".

However, while "The Hitman's Bodyguard" certainly was watchable and entertaining enough, it just didn't have the punch and the comedy that the 2017 movie offered. And it was a bit disappointing actually. And oddly so since they really upped the game with the likes of Morgan Freeman, Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas added to the cast list.

The storyline told in this 2021 sequel was just a bit too mundane in comparison to the first movie. Sure, the movie was fun and entertaining enough for what it was. Just a shame that it never managed to get up to the same level as the 2017 movie "The Hitman's Bodyguard" did.

Of course it is fun to see Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson back on the screen together. And I do admit that having Salma Hayek as part of the main cast was definitely fun, especially with her particular character and that accent.

There is a good amount of action in the movie, though it does feel a bit wasted given the movie's otherwise mundane storyline.

I must say, though, that "Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard" wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped. But it is adequate enough for a single viewing if you're in for an evening of some light-hearted action comedy.

And I do find it a shame that writers Phillip Murphy and Brandon Murphy didn't manage to take this 2021 movie up to the same level as its predecessor.

My rating of director Patrick Hughes' 2021 movie lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Positives:

• As a comedy thriller, it does pass the '6 laughs test' in terms of the 'comedy' element. Some of these are minor chuckles. A few are really good belly laughs.

• Among these are some of the outrageous tirades of Salma Hayek: her accent makes some of the dialogue unintelligible, but given its X-rated nature, that's not necessarily a bad thing! As a mid-50's actress (Oh God - - don't tell her I mentioned her age!), Ms Hayek indeed has an arrestingly attractive form.

• Seeing Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman on the screen is never anything other than a positive. (Although Banderas is like Sean Connery in failing to tailor his natural accent to any role he's ever in!)

Negatives:

• A general problem I have with 'comedy thrillers' is that the comedy nearly always negates any of the thrills. Ryan Reynolds is not playing Deadpool in this one, although he might as well be doing so based on the number of times he is hit by cars and other solid objects. The result is that although it has the trappings of a Bond or a Bourne - exotic locations (here, mostly Italian ones) ; exotic woman; car chases; heavily-armed henchmen; huge explosions - it delivers none of the tension or excitement. When matched with some rather dodgy post-shoot special effects, the effect is generally underwhelming.

• The plot here is shallow and ludicrous. A McGuffin involving a diamond drill tunnelling into "Europe's data hub" to implant a virus is infantile.

• If there was an award for the clumsiest movie title of 2021, we may already have a winner.

Summary Thoughts on "The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard": Sequels are very occasionally better. Often they are much worse. This one, I have to say, delivers very much "more of the same". Given that the writer/director team of Tom O'Connor and Patrick Hughes are in the driving seat, that's not much of a surprise. The shtick is mildly diverting, occasionally downright funny, but quickly outstays its welcome. The 100 minute run time felt, for me, much longer.

Looking back at my 2017 review of the first film, I think I was being over-kind giving it 6/10. I think this is neither better nor worse. So if you want to average the two and give each 5/10, I wouldn't object! But, again, it's one I will struggle to remember much about in a few month's time.

(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web or Facebook. Thanks).