If only it had been funny. Let’s do the good bits first, though. Samuel L Jackson is never less than good fun, and his moments with Salma Hayek are highlights. There’s a welcome burst of Lionel Ritchie’s Hello too, played to comedy effect. Furthermore, The Expendables 3 director Patrick Hughes loves a good, old-fashioned brutal firefight, and whatever company supplies such films with muzzle flashes would have enclosed a hefty invoice for their efforts here. There’s not much variance to the action sequences on the flip side of that, and some of them don’t half drag on. But if you’re frustrated by over-stylised gunfights in movies, just know that Hughes has your back. Unfortunately, not much else gels. Of particular disappointment is the spark-free relationship between Reynolds and Jackson. Neither’s on bad form, but conversely, they don’t get anywhere near the mismatched gold of Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte, or Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. They just bicker and get on your nerves a bit, without the sparks needed to lift the material. For an action comedy to really work, both elements need to click. Here, the comedy doesn’t land, and the action feels steadfast and decent, but never that interesting. With too many things dragging against it, it eventually submerges the movie, and leaves The Hitman’s Bodyguard as a late summer disappointment. Just one with a great poster.
