Der Killer & sein Bodyguard

Ein ziemlich verrückter Humor, der nicht so witzig ist, wie man erwarten würde. Aber man gewöhnt sich daran und im letzten Drittel funktioniert er besser. So wie die Chemie zwischen Samuel und Ryan, die eine gefühlvollere Regie bräuchte. Killer's Bodyguard möchte eine coole knallharte Komödie sein, aber manchmal wirkt sie oberflächlich arrogant (so etwas wie die schlimmsten Bay-Momente). Am meisten leidet darunter die Figur von Salma Hayek, die noch dazu schlecht besetzt wurde. Von Action ist genug da und sie ist auch richtig laut. Am meisten freute ich mich über Amsterdam – in dessen Straßen sieht man sie nicht so oft. (08.09.2017)

If I were twelve years old and saw this movie on basic cable on a Saturday night, I would be thrilled. But I’m not twelve anymore and I saw it at the cinema. Shane Black, who fundamentally influenced the form of modern buddy movies, understood that if you want to make movies like Lethal Weapon today, you can’t take either yourself or the film seriously (see the third Iron Man and The Nice Guys). There are tendencies toward self-awareness in The Hitman’s Bodyguard (though there is sometimes a very fine line between “it’s terribly stupid, you know it’s terribly stupid, and we know that you know” and simply “it's terribly stupid”), but the film handles them terribly inconsistently. Besides the almost parodic scenes (the apocalypse is unfolding behind Michael while he calmly continues his monologue) there are moments of simple exaggeration that are supposed to be touching or, in the worst case, to tell of pseudo-fictional war crimes (given the context, I found the storyline with Dukhovich to be rather tasteless). The characters suffer from the same identity crisis. They sometimes behave like people educated by genre clichés, but in a number of other respects, they just predictably follow conventions and make stupid mistakes. The narrative repeatedly loses momentum due to the unsuccessful attempt to humanise the two characters through their relationship with the dear better half and a more or less serious explanation of how they became the people they are (the flashback to Darius’s first murder, for example, is simply out of place due to its reverent tone). This constant relationship-counselling philosophising, even in moments when the protagonists are clearly short on time, is not skilfully integrated into the ongoing action and serves only to extend the runtime – the main storyline grinds to a halt so that the men can wallow in their feelings and whine a little. The pace is thus fairly uneven and the film seems to be much longer than it actually is. The level is raised significantly by the long action sequences in Amsterdam and The Hague, which have the appropriate verve and wit, even though they are horribly edited and don’t really move the narrative anywhere (well, except when the characters move from one place to another). But then comes the haphazard (in terms of special effects, the screenplay and the acting) final act, which basically negates the preceding hundred minutes (in the end, everything is resolved in a completely different way than what the story had been leading up to the whole time) and the whole film goes steeply downhill. The Hitman’s Bodyguard could have been an excellent high-concept action movie with a pair of charismatic actors (of which Jackson is the dominant force in the film) and a ’90s feel, if it didn’t so clumsily defend its overwrought B-movie nature and add importance in a way that takes all of the fun out of it. 50% (18.08.2017)

It hasn’t happened to me in a long time that after watching a movie I would feel that I just saw two different halves of an action comedy that were really different in terms of quality. My excitement over a new action comedy gradually faded as I was watching a story taking place in London that wasn’t too funny and in which the pair (Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds) couldn’t seem to manage to tune in to the proper buddy-comedy wavelength. It took a long time and for a moment I felt that I wouldn’t manage to watch it to the end. For instance, Selma Hayek is so incredibly unfunny in this one and she didn’t fit in her role so much that it was nothing but embarrassing. But about an hour into the movie, something incredible happened. The movie relocated to Amsterdam and it not only turned into a whirlwind of action, but it got pretty entertaining as well. Samuel and Ryan literally found one another and they started shooting catchphrases at each other. In the end, I was so excited about the second half that I had to watch several scenes again. How is it even possible that one film could create so many different emotions? (30.11.2017)

I like movies like this a lot, and there hasn't been a classic action buddy comedy in a long time (no, The Nice Guys is not a classic action buddy comedy), so I was quite excited. And left the theater pretty disappointed. The Hitman’s Bodyguard always manages to score a few points on something, but after a while it trips over its own feet. Patrick Hughes does come up with and shoot some good action scenes, and a couple of them are excellent, but all of them are accompanied by completely inappropriate and ultimately annoying music. Samuel L. Jackson enjoys his role exactly as one would expect, but, unfortunately, Ryan Reynolds is usually next to him playing a depressed, boring and annoying buffoon. For a while it seems like an easygoing and funny film, only to switch at some points into a rather depressing and unnecessarily serious one. Well, the result is a mess that sometimes goes excellently, sometimes terribly and mostly kind of mediocre. After its clever and successful marketing, I expected a lot more. (21.08.2017)

A romp full of the best lines from start to finish. Jackson is God and Reynolds in Deadpool mode (in fact this could be a prequel). Awesome action, locations atypical. And the last time I saw such a superb chase (boat, motorbike, car) was in Jackie Chan’s Armor of God. Fucking Prague! (28.01.2018)

Hughes doesn't pack top of the range action like his colleagues Stahelski or Leitch, so even if it is supposed to look like that of John Wick or Atomic Blonde, it's not as good – some of the scenes, actually, look like out of a Van Damme B-movie made in Romania. But that's one of the few downsides of an otherwise very laid-back, at times very entertaining film packed with one-liners that is dominated primarily by the two leads, the iconic villain played by Gary Oldman, who is still doing his thing and still entertaining us, and Salma Hayek, who is 50 and, quite incomprehensibly, still looks 30. I don't think you'd want to see it repeatedly, because you'd miss the moment of surprise and realize what a load of crap it actually is, but it's fine lightweight disposable entertainment. (20.08.2017)

Midnight Run for the new millennium... just don't expect a believable criminal plot or anything like that, because that's really not the case here. The film is just under two hours of Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, and not only their verbal shootouts and the pleasant “relax, everything will turn out well" atmosphere. However, I would cut down the length of the film, because it does not deserve slightly less than two hours and, for example, after the great escape from Amsterdam the second big action scene with a car chase was completely boring and useless, and only the brawl at a hardware store saved it. (08.03.2021)

At times it grinds a lot in its blend of crazy buddy comedy with serious ideas and elements (Gary Oldman's villain is too one-dimensionally psychopathic for such a lightweight film), and the pacing is uneven depending on the attractiveness of each character, but the two title characters are so entertainingly sketched and their confrontations so well motivationally set, transformative, and embellished, with a supporting character (Hayek’s) that so perfectly embodies my idea of a badass femme fatale, and the action scenes so accurately combine adrenaline with hyperbole that I can't help but hum contentedly and recommend this action flick with an A-list cast; for Samuel's sake alone, who drops one firecracker after another and delivers his third best role after Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight. 70% (22.08.2017)

I can't even remember when I've enjoyed four stars this much. Admittedly the buddy element doesn't really work there, as Reynolds can't keep an eye on Jackson, who clearly could do whatever he wanted here, even with a crane, and it has a terrible selection and use of music, but where it does dominate is in the field of unapologetic action, which is plentiful in the film and great to watch. The problem with most action comedies is that they have directors forged in the comedy genre rather than the action genre, and they have to work with actors who are a lot of laughs, but getting them to kick a jacked-up hundred-pound stuntman in a way that doesn't demand suspension of disbelief just isn't possible most of the time. Fortunately, Hughes is first and foremost an action director who has experience with explosive choreography, so I can fully enjoy all the stunts, chases, and shootouts, the live streets in broad daylight, and they're multi-layered to boot. The tour de force escalation is then the chase in Amsterdam, with five elements chasing each other (goons, police, interpol, bodyguard, and hitman) using boats, motorbikes, cars, machine guns, and bazookas, not one at a time but all at once. The streets are treacherous, full of dodging civilians, cars, outdoor restaurants and bridges, and everything is used to the maximum with first-class choreography. And at the end of the film, perhaps as if out of obligation, a helicopter still sort of casually falls on a building, just to say they did. Hughes has managed to make excellent use of every dollar of his $30 million budget, and though he still hasn’t quite come up with a new Lethal Weapon in hand, it suffices for one of the most entertaining films of 2017. (07.11.2017)

I couldn't give it any other rating, the film definitely deserves five stars. The central duo was perfection, especially Samuel L. Jackson, whom I've otherwise only seen play dumb characters in dumb movies lately. This time everything worked, I loved the action scenes, the one-liners flew as fast as projectiles, there was plenty of black humor and even some romantic moments in a Honduras bar. Total satisfaction. (20.01.2018)

Honestly, I was hoping it would be even funnier than it actually was. The main duo was fine, at times there was great chemistry between them, but the film also has its dull moments and honestly, it has a rather slow start. Salma Hayek is beautiful, but there is still something missing for it to be a great movie. (12.11.2017)

A fun buddy comedy with some exquisitely filmed action scenes. Unfortunately, the rest is so routinely and carelessly done that it boggles the mind. Jackson drops one-liners and insults left and right as usual. Reynolds, despite his often bored expression, has great comedic talent. But a lot of things are just dull and Örvarsson's music sometimes takes it down to the level of a cheesy 90s series. Then again, I shouldn’t say anything bad about the music, because it finally occurred to someone to shoot an action scene to the beat of Spiderbait’s “Black Betty”, so as a “Need for Speed ​​Underground 2” hardcore fan, I was over the moon. (07.09.2017)