Squeals On wheels

The Hitman’s Bodyguard | Reynolds. Jackson. Wtf?!

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It’s Midnight Run meets Raising Arizona with a taste of In Bruges,” bellows Aussie director Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3, Red Hill) over breakfast in the high-end dining area of a salubrious hotel in midtown Manhattan. It’s late April and he’s describing rollicking new action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard, his booming voice quashing the hushed conversations at all other tables.

“Shit man, I got a call when I was hopping out of the surf in Malibu,” continues Hughes. “My fucking agent called me and said, ‘Ryan [Reynolds] wants to meet with you in New York tomorrow – you gotta get on a plane tonight.’ He said it was a two-hander and I said, ‘Who’s the other person?’ and he said ‘Sam Jackson’. I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, those two on the screen together…’”

A heightened, madcap, flame-grilled actioner, The Hitman’s Bodyguard is designed to turn heads in much the manner that Hughes’ boombox antics are doing right now. Reynolds is the bodyguard, Jackson the hitman, the two clashed together when the former is assigned to transport the latter to the International Court of Justice. Travelling by car, their perilous journey takes in Heat-like running gun battles in Coventry (yes, Coventry) and speedboat chases along the canals of Amsterdam. But no amount of bullets, collisions and fireballs can match the explosive banter that’s going down inside the car.