The Hitman’s Bodyguard

What began as the “banter & buddy-buddy ballistic” genre with movies like 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon has been reduced to sit-com violence in this rehash of 16 Blocks where a down-on-his luck bodyguard is given the task of protecting a hitman. One flubbed job and Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is living out of his car as an unreliable “executive protector” of coke-addled attorneys and corporate bigwigs, when he receives a call from the woman he blames for his misfortune asking him to escort Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) to testify in International Court. The guy on trial is dictator Vlad Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), who has a league of assassins at his disposal. So, OK, they gotta work together as carnage ensues along their scenic route, but somewhere along the way someone figured it’d be a good idea to pulp-out the meet-and-grind for these two guys and their love interests, so Elodie Young (Elektra on Daredevil) and Salma Hayek are given little more to do that stay on their cell phones.

[R]