The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)
August 29, 2017 2:48 PM - Subscribe
The world's top bodyguard gets a new client, a hit man who must testify at the International Court of Justice. They must put their differences aside and work together to make it to the trial on time.
Jackson is an assasin and Reynolds plays the bodyguard. It's violent, funny, and entertaining. The leads actually have great chemistry together.
Jackson is an assasin and Reynolds plays the bodyguard. It's violent, funny, and entertaining. The leads actually have great chemistry together.
I might go see this tonight. It feels like this came out of nowhere though. The R rating gives me a little hope.
posted by ODiV at 3:04 PM on August 29, 2017
posted by ODiV at 3:04 PM on August 29, 2017
Yeah, this was way better than it had any right to be. Like, surprisingly so. I put most of it down to the chemistry between Jackson and Reynolds. None of this should really work as well as it did, but afterwards I found I had a good time.
Yung had some good moments, but her character was super mishandled at the end. You're telling me some over the hill, pudgy creep with an injury overpowers her and she needs her ex to to save her? No way. We've already seen she's a super cop. Let her take out that ass by herself. If there were like five goons, then maybe she could use a little help.
And Hayek, man. Wow. She was crazy over the top, like insanely so, but I bought her character for some reason. I have no explanation for this.
The sound at the theatre here was too loud and not balanced correctly. I couldn't make out some of the dialog over the music and when the first gunfight broke out it was painful. I complained and I'm not sure if they ever did anything. The guy said, "Yeah, it's been loud all week." so... I don't really have high hopes they know what they're doing. Reminds me why I don't go see a movie here that often.
posted by ODiV at 11:21 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yung had some good moments, but her character was super mishandled at the end. You're telling me some over the hill, pudgy creep with an injury overpowers her and she needs her ex to to save her? No way. We've already seen she's a super cop. Let her take out that ass by herself. If there were like five goons, then maybe she could use a little help.
And Hayek, man. Wow. She was crazy over the top, like insanely so, but I bought her character for some reason. I have no explanation for this.
The sound at the theatre here was too loud and not balanced correctly. I couldn't make out some of the dialog over the music and when the first gunfight broke out it was painful. I complained and I'm not sure if they ever did anything. The guy said, "Yeah, it's been loud all week." so... I don't really have high hopes they know what they're doing. Reminds me why I don't go see a movie here that often.
posted by ODiV at 11:21 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh, I almost forgot! If you need some scenery chewed then Gary Oldman is still very much in the business.
posted by ODiV at 11:24 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ODiV at 11:24 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
A good bit of the Amsterdam chase sequence was filmed in our neighbourhood, so it's fun to see it on film with big name stars. But let's just say that the whole sequence takes serious liberties with Amsterdam geography.
posted by daveje at 4:20 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by daveje at 4:20 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
I don't think it was your theatre, ODiV, I think it was the sound mix on the movie. It was a complaint that I and my viewing partner had as well. Actually, I think it was the first thing to come out of my mouth after the movie was over. Trying to listen to the dialogue over the music was a frustrating exercise during certain points in the film.
The other comment that came off the top of my head was that at this point both Ryan and Sam have just stopped acting (and apparently have lost the need to act) altogether. Both of these characters just slotted directly into their preferred on-screen personas.
Still, it was a bit of fun summer fluff in a summer that was devoid of fun summer fluff.
posted by sardonyx at 11:52 AM on August 30, 2017
The other comment that came off the top of my head was that at this point both Ryan and Sam have just stopped acting (and apparently have lost the need to act) altogether. Both of these characters just slotted directly into their preferred on-screen personas.
Still, it was a bit of fun summer fluff in a summer that was devoid of fun summer fluff.
posted by sardonyx at 11:52 AM on August 30, 2017
Re: balancing the dialog vs. music sound..... there is absolutely nothing a movie theater can do about this.
Movies come to a theater with The Soundtrack, singular, not with separate dialog and music channels that can be manipulated at will. All anyone at the theater level can do is A) turn the volume up --- that's all the volume, dialog and music; or B) turn the volume down --- again, all the volume, dialog and music. Somewhere in post-production, a conscious choice was made to overwhelm the dialog, and the rest of us are stuck with it.
(Source: I've been a theater projectionist since 1984, and have wished many, many times I did have the capability to adjust the volume of the dialog vs. the volume of the music/background.)
posted by easily confused at 11:04 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Movies come to a theater with The Soundtrack, singular, not with separate dialog and music channels that can be manipulated at will. All anyone at the theater level can do is A) turn the volume up --- that's all the volume, dialog and music; or B) turn the volume down --- again, all the volume, dialog and music. Somewhere in post-production, a conscious choice was made to overwhelm the dialog, and the rest of us are stuck with it.
(Source: I've been a theater projectionist since 1984, and have wished many, many times I did have the capability to adjust the volume of the dialog vs. the volume of the music/background.)
posted by easily confused at 11:04 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Movies come to a theater with The Soundtrack, singular, not with separate dialog and music channels that can be manipulated at will. All anyone at the theater level can do is A) turn the volume up --- that's all the volume, dialog and music; or B) turn the volume down --- again, all the volume, dialog and music.
Asking genuinely, isn't dialog generally more prominent on the centre channel in a film shown in a theatre like it is at home? If they've fucked up and, say, disconnected the centre channel, wouldn't the mix be off?
It seems my theatre has the ability to do more than volume up/down, anyway, because years ago a speaker blew and they turned the bass way the fuck down to keep the distortion at a tolerable* level until they could replace it. I could see you not wanting a movie theatre fucking with the bass/treble/etc, but it's not like you can really stop it, right?
*- reader, it was not tolerable.
posted by ODiV at 12:58 PM on August 31, 2017
Asking genuinely, isn't dialog generally more prominent on the centre channel in a film shown in a theatre like it is at home? If they've fucked up and, say, disconnected the centre channel, wouldn't the mix be off?
It seems my theatre has the ability to do more than volume up/down, anyway, because years ago a speaker blew and they turned the bass way the fuck down to keep the distortion at a tolerable* level until they could replace it. I could see you not wanting a movie theatre fucking with the bass/treble/etc, but it's not like you can really stop it, right?
*- reader, it was not tolerable.
posted by ODiV at 12:58 PM on August 31, 2017
I loved the closing scene, where Jackson and Hayek's characters are slow-dancing in the DR dive bar where they met, while utter mayhem breaks out all around them.
posted by carmicha at 8:07 PM on September 3, 2017
posted by carmicha at 8:07 PM on September 3, 2017
Yeah I didn't expect much out of this movie but I was quite pleasantly surprised.
First, a side note, I also had the sound problem, but I could still hear the dialog pretty well, however the theater I was in was one of those reclining chairs with wait service theaters so the screen/sound in relation to the size of the room was pretty big. The loud action scenes actually left my ears a little deaf after the movie. I thought I was sitting too close, but from the consensus here maybe the film is just too loud.
I also thought the canal chase scene went on for longer than I thought that canal had the length for. I've never been to Amsterdam but I've seen plenty of photos and non-action movie scenes of that canal, and it's pretty short, or at least the parts that looked pretty with the bridges and what not. Still really entertaining though!
I went in only knowing Reynolds and Jackson were in it, but was excited to find out Hayek and Oldman were in it too. I wasn't sure if Yung would be good considering they mishandled her in The Defenders, but she was good here in the limited time she got. I'm also echoing ODiV that I totally thought she should've been able to handle that pudgy assistant director all by herself. And maybe I missed it, but how did she put two and two that he was the leak? All I noticed was that she saw his bandaged hand in the court room.
Still would watch this again though, if only for the 1 minute during the final car chase scene I missed 'cause I couldn't hold my bladder in anymore. I figured it would be more of the same as the first car chase scene, and then all of a sudden he's in the subway?? And later they disagreed on how he exited the car! I have to see that!
posted by numaner at 12:11 PM on September 8, 2017
First, a side note, I also had the sound problem, but I could still hear the dialog pretty well, however the theater I was in was one of those reclining chairs with wait service theaters so the screen/sound in relation to the size of the room was pretty big. The loud action scenes actually left my ears a little deaf after the movie. I thought I was sitting too close, but from the consensus here maybe the film is just too loud.
I also thought the canal chase scene went on for longer than I thought that canal had the length for. I've never been to Amsterdam but I've seen plenty of photos and non-action movie scenes of that canal, and it's pretty short, or at least the parts that looked pretty with the bridges and what not. Still really entertaining though!
I went in only knowing Reynolds and Jackson were in it, but was excited to find out Hayek and Oldman were in it too. I wasn't sure if Yung would be good considering they mishandled her in The Defenders, but she was good here in the limited time she got. I'm also echoing ODiV that I totally thought she should've been able to handle that pudgy assistant director all by herself. And maybe I missed it, but how did she put two and two that he was the leak? All I noticed was that she saw his bandaged hand in the court room.
Still would watch this again though, if only for the 1 minute during the final car chase scene I missed 'cause I couldn't hold my bladder in anymore. I figured it would be more of the same as the first car chase scene, and then all of a sudden he's in the subway?? And later they disagreed on how he exited the car! I have to see that!
posted by numaner at 12:11 PM on September 8, 2017
Not read the thread, yet. It's on the TV as we speak. The general sense is that it's like watching Charlie Parker and Jeff Beck jamming on a really dumb-ass 12-bar boogie. That is to say, a lot more fun than it deserves to be.
posted by Grangousier at 1:20 PM on April 22, 2018
posted by Grangousier at 1:20 PM on April 22, 2018
Jebus H Christ, couldn’t someone in the writer’s room have spent 10 minutes on the Wikipedia page for ‘law’? Because that’s really not how that works. That’s not how anything works.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:31 AM on June 17, 2019
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:31 AM on June 17, 2019
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Elodie Yung (Elektra from The Defenders/Daredevil) and Salma Hayek don't get enough scteentime but they do a bit of asskicking along the way.
Jackson and Reynolds should pair up again. They played off each other really well.
posted by jojo and the benjamins at 3:02 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]