Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
The world’s top bodyguard gets a new client, a hitman who must testify at the International Court of Justice. They must put their differences aside and work together to make it to the trial on time.
The Hitman's Bodyguard is a fairly formulaic buddy-action-comedy that leans heavily on the chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson to paper over its generic bones. The plot is a well-worn mismatched-partners road trip with few surprises, and the action set pieces, while energetic, are shot and edited in a workmanlike style with nothing visually distinctive. The novelty is low — the concept of an odd-couple hitman and bodyguard is not fresh, and the film executes it predictably. The ending wraps up neatly but without much payoff or memorability. What saves the film is the genuine comedic rapport between its two leads, which elevates the material above its formulaic script.