Let me remind you the content of the previous series. In “Hitman’s Bodyguard”, licensed Tri-A bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) loses his cool status after his client is slammed by hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). However, after some time, it turns out that Michael Bryce, at the request of his ex-girlfriend, is forced to accompany Darius Kincaid, in fact acting as his bodyguard, to The Hague, where Darius is to testify against the former dictator of Belarus Vladislav Dukhovich.
In the sequel, Michael Bryce completely lost his bodyguard license, which plunged him into a terrible depression, and he completely harasses his psychotherapist with whining and complaints. Finally, the psychotherapist, tired of this patient, demands that Bryce put all this bodyguard out of his head, go to Italy and have a good time on the beach, drinking cocktails and flirting with local girls.
Michael does just that – he goes to rest on the island of Capri: in fact, there is nothing else left for him. However, he did not have long to relax on the beach. Literally a couple of days later, Bryce heard the sounds of gunshots, and Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek), the wife of the same killer Darius, ran up to him, shooting back. She, without stopping shooting, said that Darius was captured by the Italian mafia and that the killer asked Sonya to call Michael Bryce for help, because he trusts him.
Bryce, of course, has absolutely no intention of messing with this completely crazy couple, but bullets whizz around, Sonya looks furious and very dangerous, so Michael has to go with her.
They practically freed Darius, but at the same time it turned out that Sonya had killed an important informant of the American Interpol employee Bobby O’Neill (Frank Grillo), who was soon to meet in Portofino with one villain and buy from him a hard drive with the coordinates of the largest cyber attack planned by the mysterious customer throughout the European Union.
In fact, this customer is the Greek millionaire Aristotle Popadopoulos (Antonio Banderas). Aristotle is terribly outraged that the damn European Union is going to impose economic and financial sanctions against his native Greece. The European Union must answer for this, Popadopoulos believes, and now he is preparing his retribution.
As a result, it turns out that the bodyguard, swindler and killer – Michael, Sonya and Darius – will have to confront Aristotle and the students of his philosophical school.
***
As you know, it was Ryan Reynolds who managed to convince the management of the Twentieth Century Fox studio that a comic blockbuster can have an “adult” R rating and still collect an excellent box office. Prior to this, it was believed that teenagers make box office for superhero comics, so the R rating means that the picture will not have normal fees. Actually, that is why most comics have a completely “toothless” rating of “PG-13” and from there all more or less adult jokes are carefully cut out.
However, succumbing to the persuasion of Reynolds, the studio risked fifty-eight million to produce an R-rated comicoid called “Deadpool” (this is the actor’s favorite character, whom he had long wanted to play in a picture dedicated to this superhero), and what was the surprise of the studio when this film grossed as much as $ 761 million at the box office, showing an absolutely fantastic GCC of 13.1 units.
After that, with blockbusters of this kind, it became somehow easier. “Deadpool 2” was released with the same rating, and it again collected an excellent box office of $ 733 million, “The Killer’s Bodyguard” was released, in which Reynolds selflessly pulled off already with Jackson: the budget there was very modest, only $ 30 million, but $ 177 million in fees is also an excellent box office, so the sequel was immediately laid down. Well, given the excellent fees of the first film, the studio became generous to increase the budget right up to $ 70 million.
With the sequel, they did not particularly subtilize. There are not so many special differences from the first film. The main characters are the same Reynolds and Jackson, who were additionally strengthened by Salma Hayek, whose character – Darius’s wife Sonya – spent the entire first film in a Dutch prison.
In the first film, the main characters had to confront the bandits, who were sent by the former dictator of Belarus with an order to destroy a dangerous witness and his bodyguard, but here the story is already more typical: the next Dr. electricity will skyrocket, which, of course, cannot be allowed. (Here I will sign under every word – it will really be scary!)
It all started, to be honest, somewhat strained: Salma Hayek didn’t go too far with swearing in the same style as Samuel L Jackson did, and I even thought that the sequel would be noticeably inferior to the original. However, from the moment all this colorful trinity was loaded into the VAZ-2105 to go to Portofino, a specific fun had already begun there, and its degree was rising and rising, reaching its climax in the final: at some moments, the cat Bublik and I were whinnying just in voice.
Ryan Reynolds still demonstrates excellent self-irony, for which the cat Bagel and I love him, and here his character gets even more than in the first film, because in this case he is being smacked by two partners at once – Jackson’s character and Hayek’s character. True, Sonya Michael is not so much smacking as kind of like taking care of, but this, in relation to a completely overgrown child, looks like an outright mockery.
Samuel L Jackson, as usual, famously revels in the role of an extremely cynical and completely outrageous killer, and in his mouth all this swearing sounds quite authentic. And the fact that his Darius somewhat resembles the recent John Shaft does not interfere with anything, because, firstly, if only he does not resemble John Wick, and secondly, that Darius and Shaft are very, very funny characters.
Salma Hayek, as I said, at the beginning of the picture swearing a little strainedly, and Sonya’s stories about the state of her genitals we will leave on the conscience of the scriptwriters, as well as some other obviously unnecessary jokes, but Salma did not spoil the comedic furrow, and even slightly embellished , and somewhere in the other two-thirds of the film, she was already very funny.
Antonio Banderas enthusiastically played the role of the main guard, and here we must pay tribute to the costume designers: his style of dressing was reminiscent of the big star of the past, Vladzi Valentino Liberace, mixed with the manner of some United Statesn nouveau riche, and the character himself really resembles “the fruit of forbidden love of Elvis with a roll wallpaper” as well said in the movie.
Also Salma Hayek plus Antonio Banderas – here, of course, it was impossible not to joke, referring to the legendary Desperado, and they joked in the film – quite, by the way, funny.
The cutest Morgan Freeman appeared here in a somewhat unexpected, and rather dual role: we will not spoil it, but he played his role, as usual, perfectly.
Well, Frank Grillo (“Day of the Trigger”) adequately acted as a cool American Interpol agent – he was quite on the spot, he liked it. But it is strange that the filmmakers never forced him to take off his jacket and shirt here. Well, more precisely, it is strange that the actor himself did not put forward this as a mandatory requirement for his participation: apparently, he simply does not yet have such a level that would allow such demands to be made.
From the combat (we remember that this is a pure parody) point of view – let’s say, within the budget of the picture, the main roles of which are played by two quite stellar actors with high fees (and Salma Hayek, too, you know, although not a superstar, but the actress is quite status) – everything is very decent: there are several spectacular races and shootouts, there are chic Italian locations (Portofino is just a paradise on Earth, and amazing Florence also lit up here), and if the intensity of special effects before the recent “Fast and the Furious 256” is not here falls short (which is good, because the special effects are not as cartoonish as there), then it is understandable, because the ninth “Fast and the Furious” budget is $ 200 million, that is, three times more.
But here, serious money was spent on including the VAZ-21053 in the picture, which could be purchased for two kopecks, but to make this rattletrap move at all, the investments were clearly serious. Or this car was simply dragged along the road by a tractor in order to minimize costs – yes, I didn’t think about it, an option, I don’t argue.
In short, I really liked it. I liked it even more than the first film, which I honestly did not expect at the beginning of the sequel. But they quickly swayed, within the framework of a parody black-humor action movie, everyone was pulled off quite selflessly, in addition to passing jokes, there were quite a few really funny jokes, the actors clearly enjoyed filming (this is always visible), well, let’s not forget that as a result, when the European Union was saved , residents of the EU did not pay much more for electricity than before. And it was a very positive ending: I assure you as a resident of the European Union. (By the way, in Spain, electricity has actually gone up a lot, so it’s definitely time to call Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson for help!)
Plus – thanks for the wonderful estate somewhere in Tuscany (ah, nostalgia), and also thanks for the chic vintage Jaguar (I couldn’t determine the specific model, I’m sorry, not Jeremy Clarkson), which with such pain tore off from himself… well, one of the characters in the movie.
The rating of the sequel is low (however, the rating of the first film was not much higher), the fees are very modest, but at the present time it is impossible to judge anything by the fees. Let’s see what the studio has to say: right now, sales of rights to screenings on streaming services can bring in much more than a badly handed down theatrical show. So if there is also a triquel (and I’m ready to watch) – it means that the studio is not disappointed.
PS There is a lot of negativity among United Statesn critics, but I listened to the official United Statesn dubbing… No, I won’t say that it’s absolutely horror-horror. We tried, yes. But such cool accents and pronunciations were gone, curses were not transferred very well, and the voice actors, as it seemed to me, were also not very well chosen. Of course, I do not want to criticize anyone, but it is not surprising that dubbing can noticeably spoil the impression.
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard review
Director: Patrick Hughes Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Salma Hayek, Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, Frank Grillo, Caroline Goodall, Tom Hopper, Christopher Kamiyasu, Stuart Alexander
Budget: $70 million
Action comedy, USA, 2020, 100 min.