The Hitman’s Bodyguard  ★★★

BUDDY action/comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard does nothing new.

But in repeating all the standard tropes, it does them with style and energy, particularly when it comes to the action sequences.

The end credits list about a hundred stunt people and it shows on screen with a minimum of CGI evident in the well-staged, crash-littered chases. This helps during the comedy lulls and lifts the film significantly overall.

The film’s other advantage is its lead pairing. Ryan Reynolds isn’t the world’s best actor, but there’s no doubt he has charisma and a self-deprecating side that helps to round out his characters.

And whine all you want about Samuel L. Jackson playing the same character for 20 years; it’s a good character and I never get tired of it, provided he is given quality lines.

In this case, writer Tom O’Connor’s script is very hit and miss which means Reynolds and Jackson have to work overtime to keep the audience entertained and engaged.  It would be interesting to know how much of the final product includes improvised material from the pair.

Reynolds plays a bodyguard who has fallen on hard times, living hand-to-mouth in his car after becoming a pariah of his industry for losing an A-grade client to an assassin.

Jackson is an international hitman languishing in prison who strikes a deal with Interpol to win his wife’s freedom in return for testifying against an alleged war criminal.

Problem is Interpol has a leak and the hitman is being hunted by the war criminal’s henchmen, determined to stop him from testifying at the trial being conducted at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Reynold’s old girlfriend just happens to be on the Interpol guard detail and decides the best thing to do is go low-profile. She hires Reynolds to protect Jackson (as if he needs protection) and get him to the trial on time.

That’s easier said that done, because the two also have history and hate each other.

Also in the cast are Gary Oldman as the vile war criminal and Salma Hayek in an entertaining small role as Jackson’s foul-mouthed, equally dangerous wife.

Director Patrick Hughes previously made the decent contemporary western Red Hill (2010) and the standard actioner The Expendables 3 in 2014.