Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson return as Michael Bryce and Darius Kincaid in “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” and the movie wastes almost every minute of its running time trying to make their reunion funny. It doesn’t work. The sequel, directed by Patrick Hughes and written by Tom O’Connor, Brandon Murphy, and Phillip Murphy, wants to be a comedy-thriller hybrid, and it ends up being neither.
Trailer, via Lionsgate Movies.
Bryce and the Kincaids
The setup is simple. Bryce is on sabbatical after losing his license, hiding out in Capri. Sonia Kincaid shows up, dragging him into a fight with mobsters who are after her. That fight sets off a chain of events involving a Greek shipping tycoon named Aristotle Papadopoulos, who plans a cyberattack on Europe’s power grid. The mobsters kidnap Darius, and Bryce and Sonia rescue him before he gets butchered by Carlo, a trafficker in Terracina.
Bobby O’Neil’s Problem
Interpol agent Bobby O’Neil shows up early and becomes the movie’s biggest problem. He catches Bryce and the Kincaids, then threatens to imprison them unless they infiltrate a party in Portofino and steal coordinates to a data grid. The trio manage the infiltration, but Sonia is handcuffed to an explosive device if she loses the coordinates. A shootout follows, and they escape just ahead of Interpol agents.
What Works
- Antonio Banderas as Aristotle Papadopoulos
- Salma Hayek as Sonia Kincaid
- Morgan Freeman as Michael Bryce Sr., Aristotle’s head of security
- Frank Grillo as Bobby O’Neil
Those four actors are the reason anyone will sit through this movie. Banderas is unhinged and fun as the mastermind behind the cyberattack. Hayek plays Sonia with a mix of menace and desperation that the script can’t quite keep up with. Freeman is reliably solid as the gruff father figure. Grillo gets some of the best lines as O’Neil, though the role is mostly a vehicle for his menacing presence.
The Rest of It
The rest of the cast is wasted. Gabriella Wright, Caroline Goodall, Alice McMillan, and the rest don’t get enough to do. The plot itself is a mess. The blackout in Zagreb, the data grid coordinates, the explosive device on Sonia — none of it lands with any weight. The movie keeps adding complications and then forgets to resolve them.
Flop at the Box Office
“Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” earned $70.1 million against a $70 million budget. That’s less than half what its predecessor made. Critics didn’t like it either. The film received negative reviews from critics and flopped at the box office.
The movie is at its best when it stops trying to be funny and lets the actors play the tension. But those moments are few and far between. The jokes land flat, the action scenes are busy without being exciting, and the stakes feel arbitrary.
Final Word
“Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” is a failure. It has a great cast and a premise that could have worked. Instead, it spends too much time trying to be clever and not enough time being tense. The sequel is a disappointment, and it’s hard to recommend it to anyone.
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