The Hitman’s Bodyguard is one of those summer movies that you can watch, enjoy, and then simply forget about afterwards! Ryan Reynolds teams up with Samuel L Jackson team up as a pair of polar opposite personas, and travel across Europe leaving a trail of destruction!
Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is a private bodyguard for all the world’s top notorious criminal overlords. Or as he would put it, a ‘Triple A Executive Protection Agent’! His glamorous lifestyle is torn to pieces after losing a premium client to an assassination. Having to go back to low key jobs, and losing his ‘Triple A’ rating, he is forced to escort Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson), a convicted hit man, to the Hague. Kincaid will testify against brutal dictator Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), in return for the release of his wife, Sonia (Salma Hayek) from prison. It’s not all smooth sailing from the UK to the Netherlands, as Dukhovich’s thugs will stop at nothing to prevent Kincaid from his testimony!
By far, the best part of the movie is the constant bickering between Reynolds & Jackson. It saves the movie from being utterly ordinary. On one side, you have Bryce, someone who lives by his rules, planning every mission to the very step, considering every possibility of failure. Then you have Kincaid, who lets his heart rule his actions, his devil-may-care attitude to life being a stark contrast. It’s the standard formula for any onscreen partnership, and both actors do a hilarious job with their roles. Salma Hayek is also a blast, though she is pretty much the generic fiery Latino character here, seen in several movies before.
VLADISLAV DUKHOVICH (Gary Oldman) in THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD.
The rest of the film is a play by the books number, with uninspiring characters and troupes. You have the brutal eastern European tyrant, the hot ex-girlfriend, an elite task force that get taken out within 10 minutes with only the rookie surviving, characters managing to miraculously find each other in sprawling cities! The dictator storyline could have been entirely removed, and replaced with a mafia/gang boss, and it really wouldn’t make a difference!
Kincaid’s character is obviously given a background, in order for us to support him as the film approaches its finale, and it does work well. After all he is a serial killer, and they film does need to justify his actions. His actions may be twisted, but you can see why he is the way he is. Whereas Bryce, you never really care for his arch, and his love interest, Roussel (Elodie Yung)is just….there. Another character that could have been removed entirely to be honest!
The film also had a habit of using a very strange filter effect, where the image would be blurred. The budget clearly wasn’t high, but the strange smudgy filter to hide some of the effects were very shoddy, You start to wonder if its the fault of the movie, or the projector!
If you enjoy a film with the buddy cop mechanic, and the wit of Reynolds & Jackson, then it won’t hurt to go check it out, but you probably won’t remember much about it after a weekend!
Atomic Blonde has the espionage of Bond and the action of John Wick; with Charlize Theron portraying the stone cold, cool-as-ice, and stunningly sexy agent Lorraine Broughton.
Set during the fall of the Berlin War in 1989, though not related to this historic event whatsoever, we follow MI6 Agent Lorraine Broughton in her journey to Berlin to investigate the murder of fellow agent James Gasciogne (Sam Hargrave) and to locate “The List”. As in many Cold War spy thrillers, “The List” is a piece of microfilm containing the names of all allied field agents active in the Soviet Union and, in true Bond style, the microfilm is hidden in a wristwatch. Unfortunately, things start going wrong for Lorraine as soon as the her killer heels touch the ground, but people soon find out she is a force to be reckoned with. Lorraine’s contact in Berlin is MI6 agent and station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) who seems to have adapted to his environment a little too well, being described in the film as “feral”, and has his own rules and motives.
Friend or foe?
The narrative is a re-telling of the events that took place in Berlin by Lorraine in an debriefing led by MI6 executive Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA agent Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman). Throughout the film we are thrown, both seamlessly and abruptly, between Berlin and the London interrogation room, the questions posed to Lorraine driving the story forward and building doubt and suspicion regarding everyone’s intentions.
In stark contrast to the seriousness of other cold war and general spy thrillers, and even the background and plot of this film, David Leitch has used a combination of very stylistic components to create an entertaining, anarchistic and glam rock atmosphere. The garish neon lights, spray paint screen annotations, breaking the fourth wall, a steamy lesbian affair, a new wave score, and bold outfits give a lighter edge to this violent and bloody thriller. This style is reminiscent of films made in the ’90s depicting anarchy, disregard for rules or an anti-establishment message.
The contrast extends down to the counterculture depicted on both sides of the Berlin wall. In the West, everyone is free to dress and drink as they please, whereas, in the East, we see youths being punished for partying, the inevitable rebellion and revolution. This is reflected in Lorraine’s image as well as the atmosphere; in the West her dress and make-up is bold, provocative and punk, in the East she switches the sheer blonde for brunette and dresses plainly with minimal make-up.
West is best
East is least
The soundtrack is as killer as Theron; tracks from the likes of David Bowie, Kanye West, The Clash, Queen, Public Enemy, Health and New Order give the film power and emotion. What is particularly interesting is the use of the original song, plus a reprisal using a cover in a later scene with a very different mood. At some points this reinforced the direction of the plot, descents into chaos, loss of control and stings of emotion. With the help of composer and music supervisor Tyler Bates (composer for John Wick), Leitch has put together a playlist that compliments the non-verbal storytelling occurring in much of the film and reflects the environment and rebellion of the period.
Yes, that’s a hose and a saucepan
As well as a killer soundtrack, this film has absolutely brutal action sequences. David Leitch’s stunt background explains the satisfaction I got from watching those scenes; he has been stunt man, double, coordinator and co-director for a number of action-heavy films (Fight Club, 300, Bourne films, Matrix films, John Wick, and the upcoming Deadpool 2). The realism Leitch has injected here is impressive and effective; Theron insisted that she do as many of the stunts as legally permitted, training for months on her strength, wrestling and Muay Thai, and even getting a couple of sparring sessions in with Keanu Reeves!! Her style is what you would expect for a woman fighting men two to three times her size, the participants get tired as you would expect when you’re getting your ass kicked that hard, and people get horrific injuries, including Lorraine. We even see her emerge from an ice bath, battered, bloody and bruised, and no make-up to hide the swollen, blackened eye she received during the course of her Berlin antics. These are the consequences of her profession and entering heavy hand-to-hand combat. One of these scenes is around 7 minutes long and actually shot in continuity, this means no time to alter make-up, re-adjust wigs, or apply any extra effects, which is why I expect the characters look so exhausted and a complete mess by the end; but all this just augments the realism of the scene.
David Percival (James McAvoy)
Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella)
The supporting roles around Lorraine help to reveal distinct attributes of her character; with Gray, Kurzfeld and Percival she is cold and steely, she does not trust anyone and does not play nice. Even with the stasi officer, code name “Spyglass” (Eddie Marsan), Lorraine has to protect and escort out East Berlin, she remains icy and emotionless in order to properly do her job. Conversely, the young and innocent French intelligence agent Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella) brings out a more honest vulnerable side to Lorraine. Originally, the french agent was male in the graphic novel “The Coldest City” that Atomic Blonde is based on, Leitch agreed that the gender flip was a good move and makes the story a little more provocative which he describes as integral for his vision for his solo directorial debut.
Still gorgeous
Overall this movie is a hit for me; with exciting action, bold fashion and music, great comedic timing and funny quips. It’s true that the storyline is a little generic and you do have to pay attention to make sure you understand what is going on and who’s betraying who, but it’s clear that Leitch’s focus was the style of the retelling. In his own words, he wanted to be fresh, provocative and reinvent the “stuffy” cold war spy movie. It sounds like Theron really enjoyed this role, saying that it was her perfect female protagonist, regardless of how many times she puked in training or how many teeth she cracked. She owned this part and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her kick-ass.
And as Theron’s costume designer Cindy Evans rightly said: “Yeah, because Bond could never do it—so you have to”.
For anyone not familiar with the series, Spooks was a wonderfully gritty espionage drama on the BBC, which ran from 2002 to 2011. The show was widely praised for its polished, sleek production, together with its shocking story lines. This was a show not afraid to display graphic violence, or kill off a main character. Things did taper off as the series reached it conclusion, but the shows peak in the earlier seasons are most definitely worth a watch online!
Spooks: The Greater Good takes place after the events of the show. Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth), the long standing head of counter terrorism at MI5, has to disappear off the grid. Following the failed attempt at transferring terror suspect Qasim (Elyes Gable,) over to the CIA. Harry suspects that it was an inside job at MI5, and relies on the assistance of Holloway (Kit Harington), a former MI5 agent, to find out the truth.
Although there are a few minor appearances from some of the cast from the show, The Greater Good focuses mainly on new allies and antagonists. Kit Harington is the main star of the film, but it feels like he was simply cast in this, to ride the wave of his tremendous popularity from his Game of Thrones work. He does a credible job, but he does not elude the aura of an action hero, well not yet anyway! Our villain never really feels like a threat, you don’t really see what he has done before, or why we should be afraid of him. He just does not feel intimating at all!
The plot is your standard ‘The Mole’ story line you have seen in many Spy movies from before. If you enjoy espionage movies, this has all the enjoyable troupes. Shady meetings in car parks, chases, interrogation and explosions! If you’re a fan of the show, you may admire the connection it has to the series, but if you have no idea what Spooks is, you’ll have a difficult time bothering to care about what’s going on!
It’s clear to see the budget for the movie was not huge, and the BBC sheen is obviously missing. The TV version felt so real, and raw. Here, it just feels like a generic movie. But it makes the most of what it can, and there are several famous locations in London that feature throughout. As some who live in London, it’s always nice to see places you recognize in a movie!
Harry is by far the most interesting part of the movie. He is a character who has been beaten by years of service, and having to suffer all the tough decisions he has had to make, and it’s nice to see him away from his desk & suit, and getting his hands well and truly dirty. The rest of the cast are not very memorable. David Harewood brings some gravitas to his role as Warrender, the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, other than that, not much else to report!
Spooks: The Greater Good is in no way a bad movie, but it suffers from a bland storyline and simply just not feeling as real as the show. Though at just over 1:30, it’s a perfectly decent movie to watch if you got some time on hand, and like your espionage!
Silver Screen Show 