Plot
The former President of Belarus, Vladislav Dukhovich, is set to stand trial for crimes against humanity. The only witness to his atrocity is renowned hitman Darius Kincaid – who is currently serving consecutive life sentences.
Interpol, led by senior agent Amelia Roussel, is charged with transporting him from prison to testify, but they are gunned down on the way – with Roussel and Kincaid barely making it to a safe house.
Roussel calls the one man who can assist, her, her bodyguard ex Michael Bryce – who has not spoken to her in years due to one of his clients being assassinated.
It doesnt help that Bryce and Kincaid have an… awkward history…
Direction
Directed by Australian Patrick Hughes.
There are some great direction moments, especially during the convoy attack, and later in the film when Bryce is going up against Dukhovich’s right hand man.
There is also a solid carchase sequence in the second half of the film that could rival any spy films.
Cast
Ryan Reynolds plays Michael Bryce, in another Ryan Reynolds type role.
Samuel L Jackson plays Kincaid, who is clearly having a blast. Jackson is another of those who never really phones in a role. The duo have great banter with each other too.
Gary Oldman plays Dukhovich, and gives one of his standard “bad guy with a European accent” performances, one we’ve seen before, and are not tired of seeing.
Salma Hayek plays Sonia Kinkaid, Darius’ wife. Even though they have limited screen time together, those they have is hilarious.
Elodie Yung plays Roussel.
Other performers include; Richard E Grant in a funny cameo type role early on, and Joaquim de Almeida as Foucher – Ameilia’s boss.
Breakdown
Starting with the introduction to the film’s hero Bryce, it shows his flawless execution (pun intended) of how he protects his clients… only for newest client Kurosawa being executed while on his watch.
Two years later, he is a shell of his former self, having lost his ‘AAA’ rating, and now protecting the rich and pathetic (and a funny cameo from Richard E Grant).
Meanwhile, ruthless dictator and former Belarus president is being tried for warcrimes. The only living person who can testify against him is the hitman Darius Kincaid, who is in prison for multiple life sentences. For his testamony, he wants his also imprissoned wife freed, which has been agreed upon by Interpol.
Of course on way to get him to his safe house, Kincaid is targeted in an attack on his convoy (which is quite brutal especially for a comedy film), and he and lead agent Roussel escape by the skin of their teeth.
This leads Roussel to call in her ex Bryce (who has blamed her all this time for Kurosawa’s death), the revelation that someone on the inside sold them out (which is revealed early to be Roussel’s boss Foucher – removing the ‘whose the mole’ subplot), and that it was actually Kincaid that killed Kurosawa… and Amelia had nothing to do with it!!!
Most of the film is Bryce keeping Kincaid “safe” even though he is clearly more capable at times that Bryce is (and even goes to save Bryce from time to time!)
There are some hilarious moments that show how Kincaid meets his wife, and also how Bryce and Amelia met too.
The ‘buddy cop’ feel between Bryce and Kincaid is complemented by the clear chemistry and real life personalities of Reynolds and Jackson. Hayek is a hoot with Jackson as well. Looking forward to the second film where this is hopefully expanded.
I absolutely loved Kincaid’s backstory of how he became to be ‘who he is’ and his motto – who is a good guy? The one who kills the evil people, or the one who protects them… deep!
It is a ‘little’ long, and probably could have been edited slightly.
Overall
Slightly long, but a great ‘buddy cop’ style action comedy yarn, that has some great moments within.
A little violent, but that is to be expected.
The performances from Reynolds and Jackson are great, and their clear ‘real life’ personas come through.
Some good ‘heart’ within as well, that’s not overdone. A high recommend.
4/5
