The Hitmans Bodyguard

Let's face it, you know if a movie like The Hitman's Bodyguard is for you the second you see the title.

I mean, a hitman in such peril he needs protection? Whoa.

But why stop there? Add Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool himself, in wisecracking tough-guy mode and Pulp Fiction legend Samuel L. Jackson using his favourite 12-letter profanity (you remember, the one beginning with 'm' and ending with 'ucker'). Then, throw in chases involving cars, motorcycles and boats. And of course guns, guns, and guns.

It's just too bad The Hitman's Bodyguard decided to skimp in a few very important departments.

See, what we have here is a throwback to the glory days of the buddy movie, where two very different people discover they work great as a team despite their mutual dislike for one another. But, unlike the best examples of that genre, say Lethal Weapon or the great Midnight Run, the tone here is inconsistent. In fact, it's all over the place.

The Hitman's Bodyguard only rarely pulls off the irreverent, outrageous feel it's aiming for - sometimes the scenes of mayhem and murder are supposed to be disturbing or harrowing, sometimes they're a punchline.

It's possible to get that balance right, but The Hitman's Bodyguard screenplay can't nail it. Instead, it goes for the quick fix every time, whether it's a cheap gag or a run-of-the-mill action sequence, and Australian director Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3) is too busy competently (but anonymously) choreographing the action to pay too much attention.

Luckily, Reynolds and Jackson have a flinty, fractious dynamic that helps the movie ride out the rough patches. They're great fun when they can't stand one another; the fun is only slightly lessened when they slightly warm to each other.

For the most part, though, Jackson's Darius Kincaid (the hitman) and Reynolds' Michael Bryce (the hitman's bodyguard) are the best of enemies. Bryce used to be the best in the personal protection game but then he messily lost a high-profile client to a bullet from the best in the assassination business - Kincaid. Fast-forward a few years, and a disgraced Bryce is protecting a scummier class of client while an imprisoned Kincaid gets a shot at freedom if he testifies against a genocidal Eastern European warlord (Gary Oldman, glaring and growling it in). The warlord is hellbent on ensuring that doesn't happen, and he has a whole army of gun-toting goons to stop Kincaid from getting to court. And Kincaid… well, Kincaid has Bryce.

Reynolds is in good form here, niftily blending his action-hero prowess with his flair for one-liners, but he's outshone by Jackson, clearly relishing the chance to mess around with his persona as the baddest man in the whole motherfuckin' town.