The Hitman's Bodyguard

Dir: Patrick Hughes

2017

***

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is fun. That is about as much as I can say about it really, but I think that’s fine. It is based on a script that appeared on the much hyped ‘Black List’ back in 2011 but it clearly went through a few changes since. The film is an action-comedy with a few serious bits thrown in but originally it was intended as a serious thriller. Laughable really, as the story itself is about as clichéd as it gets and is far from being the sort of thing that would find itself on the Black List. Writer Tom O’Connor thinks that Interpol are a sort of EU version of the CIA, a supranational law enforcement agency with agents in fast cars (black) and guns. They’re not. They don’t even have power of arrest. It comes as no surprise that the script was re-written into a comedy, however, it is amazing to learn that this last minute rewrite happened just two weeks before filming started. This is a film that was clearly in trouble and everyone involved took a huge gamble with it. I think it paid off in the long run, but it clearly isn’t the film O’Connor intended it to be. The action sequences are forgettable, the plot is ridiculous, the CGI is bad and it follows a familiar and rather boring formula. A ‘buddy’ film featuring two feuding partners has become a bottom of the barrel genre, but, Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson make it work. The chemistry between the two is literally the only thing that makes the film work and make worth watching. Gary Oldman’s choices of roles has been questionable for a few years now and pretty much any actor could have played his part. I liked Salma Hayek’s performance but I’m not sure the role totally suited her. I suspect that everything good about the script was written in that last minute rewrite, which is amazing as it is intriguing. Seat of your pants film making can be a wonderful thing and this is clearly the proof. The Hitman’s Bodyguard is no masterpiece but it is incredibly likable and entertaining. The original script was submitted in 2011 and it took five years before filming began but everything good about it took just two weeks before filming. It makes you wonder whether these film studios actually know what they’re doing? Clearly they knew they had a potential turkey on their hands and that’s why the drastic last minute rewrites happened but to leave it so late is incredible to me, considering the work and money that is poured into films these days. Maybe more films should be written this way, because if this is what two weeks of panic writing looks like, just think of what could be achieved in one, or even just three days! It’s impossible too take this film seriously (although watching our character’s route from Manchester to Dover is excruciatingly incorrect) but its entertaining and enjoyable - entertained I was, enjoy I did.