#64 THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayek and Elodie Yung. Written by Tom O'Connor. Directed by Patrick Hughes. Running time 118 minutes. Budget $290 million. Cert 15.

Action comedy starring two men for whom charisma comes easy, perhaps all too easy. The film sees Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) a disgraced former triple A graded security agent forced to transport hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) to the International Court of human rights court in the Hague so he can testify against Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), the ruthless and bloodthirsty dictator of Belarus, who is on trial for crimes against humanity. Luckily Oldman has a literal army of heavies to throw at killing Darius and Bryce and the film follows the two men as they hack, slash and shoot their way across Europe in a series of boring cars. Along the way, Darius helps Michael repair his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Interpol agent, Amelia Rousse (Élodie Yung), while at the same time reminiscing about his perfect relationship with his incarcerated wife, Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek) who just so happens to be as equally lethal as her husband.

And that's it for the plot, after that, the two men who start out as enemies, before discovering some salient home truths about themselves, thus enabling them to become better people and then finally best pals as 10,000 heavily armed men are horrifically butchered, slaughtered and tortured.

This is a very sweary, very violent buddy movie which was actually rather fun. Not the greatest film ever made, but the two leads and Salma Hayek make it a thoroughly enjoyable romp through some splendid European locations including Amsterdam. This isn't big, it certainly isn't clever and it's neither fresh nor original, however it's a Ronsil action movie and it doesn't try and be anything else.

And I'm a sucker big stupid action films.

With some great stunts, some good gags and besides it's got Samuel L. Jackson in it! Only marred by an unnecessary third action beat that just feels too much particularly as it features a bomb packed truck crashing through crowds and exploding outside a building.

7/10