The Hitman’s Bodyguard opens with a man who kills for a living and a man who protects him from it. That premise sounds like a setup for something sharp. Instead, the film spends two hours running fast and hitting soft, chasing laughs through gunfire and car crashes while refusing to commit to either the action or the comedy beneath them. It is a movie about a hitman and his bodyguard that never decides which one it wants to watch.
The plot follows Darius Kincaid, played by Ryan Reynolds, a former CIA operative turned professional protector who gets pulled back into the field when he is hired to escort Michael Bryce, played by Samuel L. Jackson, to testify at an international tribunal. Bryce is a British ex-hitman wanted by the FBI, and the trial could send him to prison for life. Kincaid takes the job despite his better judgment, and the two men spend the film dodging assassins, corrupt officials and a slow-motion montage of a hotel lobby.
Trailer, via Lionsgate Movies.
Reynolds and Jackson Carry the Weight
Reynolds plays Kincaid as a man who has spent years building walls around himself, and Jackson plays Bryce as a man who has never had the chance to take them down. The pairing works because both actors understand the absurdity of the situation. Jackson leans into his gruff charm, delivering lines with the kind of deadpan that makes you wonder if he is being serious or mocking the whole enterprise. Reynolds plays the straight man, though his straightness is relative — he is always on the verge of cracking, which makes his restraint feel earned.
The chemistry between the two leads is the film’s best asset. Their banter is quick and often funny, and the scenes where they argue over strategy are genuinely tense. Jackson’s Bryce is a man who has lived a life of violence and now wants to walk away from it, while Reynolds’s Kincaid is a man who has never really lived at all. Their dynamic carries the film through stretches where the script loses its footing.
A Hitman Who Isn’t Much of One
Bryce is supposed to be the dangerous one. He is a former hitman, wanted by the FBI, and the film tries to establish him as a threat. But the writing never quite commits to making him scary. He is more of a comic foil than a villain, and his attempts to intimidate are undercut by his hammy delivery. Jackson can play menace, but the script keeps handing him jokes instead of stakes.
The film also fails to make the tribunal matter. The entire plot revolves around Bryce testifying, yet the trial itself is barely shown. We see the courthouse, we see the judge, and we see the prosecutor, but the actual proceedings are a blur. The film treats the testimony as a destination rather than a destination with consequences. This is a problem because the threat of Bryce’s testimony drives the action. Without it, the film becomes a series of set pieces strung together by a vague goal.
The Action Runs Fast, Then Stops
The film is at its best when it is moving. The opening sequence, in which Kincaid and Bryce dodge assassins in a hotel corridor, is well-choreographed and tense. The car chase that follows is a highlight, with Reynolds and Jackson riding in a stolen vehicle while a convoy of police cars pursues them. These moments work because the film is confident in its physical comedy — a car crash that sends Bryce flying across the hood of a parked SUV is genuinely funny.
But the film cannot sustain that energy. Once the action slows down, the comedy loses its momentum. The middle section drags, with too much time spent on exposition and not enough on spectacle. The film sets up a confrontation with a corrupt official in a hotel room, but the payoff is a phone call rather than a fight. The tension builds, and then it dissipates.
The Supporting Cast Gets Short Shrift
The supporting cast is thin. Sally Field plays Kincaid’s wife, a role that exists primarily to provide exposition about his past. Vanessa Hudgens plays his daughter, and her scenes are mostly used to give Bryce someone to protect. Neither character gets much development beyond their function in the plot. The film is so focused on its central duo that everyone else fades into background noise.
The villains are similarly underwritten. The assassin played by Patrick Kennedy shows up briefly, does his job, and disappears. There is no arc, no motivation, no sense of why he is hunting Bryce. The film is content to let him be a threat without ever making him a person. This is a missed opportunity, because a more developed antagonist could have given the film a clearer sense of danger.
A Comedy That Never Committed
The film is marketed as a comedy, but it is not a very funny one. The jokes land inconsistently. Some of the dialogue is clever, particularly when Reynolds and Jackson are trading insults, but other scenes rely on physical humor that feels forced. A scene involving a hotel bathroom is meant to be the funniest moment in the film, but it falls flat because the setup is too convoluted to pay off.
The film also struggles with tone. It wants to be a comedy, but it keeps dipping into thriller territory, and the shift is jarring. One minute Bryce is making a joke about his hitman days, and the next he is being chased by a sniper. The film never settles on a consistent register, which makes the experience feel disjointed.
A Final Stretch That Overreaches
The climax is a mixed bag. The film sets up a confrontation at the tribunal, but the final showdown is anticlimactic. Bryce is captured, and the film cuts to a scene of him in custody while Kincaid watches from a distance. The resolution is abrupt, and it leaves the audience feeling cheated. The film has spent two hours building to a moment of confrontation, and then it chooses to end on a note of uncertainty.
There is a version of this film that would have worked. It could have been a lean, mean action-comedy with a clear focus on the relationship between its two leads. It could have committed to the action or the comedy, rather than trying to split the difference. But the film cannot decide what it wants to be, and that indecision shows in every frame.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a film with a strong idea and a weak execution. It has a great pairing in Reynolds and Jackson, and it has some excellent set pieces. But it lacks a clear direction, and that lack is felt throughout. The result is a film that is entertaining in patches but forgettable as a whole.
- The opening sequence and the car chase are the film’s strongest moments
- Jackson delivers the best performance, playing Bryce as a man who is both menacing and ridiculous
- Reynolds matches him, finding the comedy in Kincaid’s frustration
- The middle section drags, with too much exposition and not enough action
- The supporting cast is underwritten, and the villains are one-note threats
- The climax undercuts the tension it builds
The film is not a failure, but it is not a success either. It is a middling effort that never quite reaches its potential. The Hitman’s Bodyguard scores 4.7 out of 10.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
