
The relationship between the lead characters is woefully underdeveloped, their relationships with the women in their lives are even weaker (Hayek’s character should either have been given twice as much to do or cut out completely), and Dukhovich is so irrelevant that he never even learns that Bryce exists. “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” doesn’t earn a damn thing. If only we could still smirk along with Bryce as he detonates a bomb inside a Manchester townhouse, or share in Kincaid’s anarchic glee as he incites carnage along the streets of Amsterdam - it’s not the movie’s fault, but in 2017 you have to earn that kind of imagery. For a modestly budgeted wank that was always going to feel like something of a ’90s throwback, nothing seems more old-fashioned than the movie’s eagerness to wreak such empty havoc across some of Europe’s most beautiful cities. You thought these guys were gonna get along? Well, guess what, they’re not going to get along at all, motherfucker!Īnd so begins a hyper-violent adventure in which our mismatched heroes try to survive evil henchmen and each other, leaving a trail of corpses that stretches from the U.K. But - here comes the twist - Bryce and Kincaid have unresolved beef with each other. Kincaid’s escort is immediately ambushed by Dukhovich’s men, and Interpol agent Amelia Roussel (Élodie Yung) asks her ex-boyfriend Bryce to take the prisoner the rest of the way. In exchange, Kincaid’s wife (a self-parodic Salma Hayek) will be released from a Dutch jail. The brunt of the action takes place two years later, when Kincaid agrees to travel to the Hague from his Manchester prison cell and testify against the genocidal former President of Belarus, Vladislav Dukhovich (obviously Gary Oldman).
#THE HITMANS BODYGUARD FUN FACTS PRO#
Pro tip: Don’t invoke Kurosawa’s name during the first five minutes of your disposable popcorn flick. All told, it’s hard to accept that Bryce believes in his safety-conscious business motto: “Boring is always best.” Likewise, it’s hard to understand how Bryce’s life changes all that much after one of his clients - a Japanese arms dealer named Kurosawa - is assassinated right in front of him, but the story assures us that it does. He’s sexy, he’s sarcastic, and he delivers every line like he’s trying to ignore a sharp pain in his groin. Ryan Reynolds stars as Michael Bryce, a Ryan Reynolds type who happens to be the best protection agent in all of London.
#THE HITMANS BODYGUARD FUN FACTS MOVIE#
Jackson is in this movie.” A movie that spends two hours reiterating a simple fact that its poster conveys in two seconds.Īn original summer movie that lazily forces all of its most famous actors to embody the most basic versions of their brands, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” has the freedom to invent a fun new world, but it plays things safer than any of the franchise films that it’s following into multiplexes. In “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” it’s an end unto itself.

In “Pulp Fiction,” the word was a means to an end. And the more we learn about Kincaid’s backstory, the more we realize that “motherfucker” isn’t being used to add character so much as it’s being used as a substitute for one.

Over time, however, it starts to seem more likely that the role was so underwritten the actor had no choice but to fill in the blanks with his signature epithet. At first, it just sounds like the role of Darius Kincaid - an assassin so un-killable that even his own wife refers to him as “the cockroach” - was written or re-written with Jackson in mind. In “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” a half-assed action-comedy that lacks the courage to commit to its own premise, Jackson says “motherfucker” 934 times (that’s not an exact count, but it feels right). He’s saying “you know who I am, and you’re here to see me do my thing.” Jackson utters “motherfucker,” he’s like a Pokémon announcing its own name.

Don’t pretend.” There’s something very true about that. Vincent, recently gave an interview in which she proffered that “‘Motherfucker’ says, like, I know you inside and out. Musician Annie Clark, better known by her stage name St. Jackson, it’s usually just a cold-blooded thing to say before he pops a cap in someone’s ass. What does it mean? Well, it can mean everything and nothing it can be a threat, a term of endearment, or whatever else the moment calls for. Yo-Yo Ma has a cello, Wayne Gretzky has a hockey stick, and Samuel L. For the length of those four syllables, he’s less of an actor than he is a bonafide artisan. Jackson sure loves to say “motherfucker.” For most of us, it’s just a swear word, but for him it’s an instrument. This won’t be news for anyone who’s seen a movie - any movie - in the last 30 years, but Samuel L.
