REVIEW: First thing’s first: I wasn’t a huge fan of The Hitman’s Bodyguard but there were things about it that I liked. Mostly, I liked Ryan Reynolds, who was well-cast as the fastidious Bryce, and I enjoyed his chemistry with Samuel L Jackson’s Darius Kinkaid. The movie also had a super-evil villain, played by Gary Oldman, and some fun action scenes, which were well-directed by The Expendables 3 director Patrick Hughes.

While that movie was essentially a straightforward action flick with heavy doses of comedy, the genre’s been swapped here in almost the same way production company Lionsgate did when they made Red 2. It’s an all-out wacky comedy now, with no stakes at all, and absolutely no drama whatsoever. Everything and I mean everything is played for laughs and it doesn’t work. Reynolds works overtime to sell the new comic vibe, but the movie is a total cartoon from start to finish. For instance, there’s a running gag that Reynold keeps getting hit by cars throughout, with CGI showing him being knocked around, only for him to pick himself and brush himself off. It’s like they tried to make him Deadpool or Free Guy, but didn’t bother to throw in the conceit that makes that acceptable in those movies. Granted, a big action movie doesn’t need a ton of logic, but this pushes it.

The premise is basically that Bryce and Kinkaid are brought together by Darius’ wife Sonia, and all three are blackmailed by a CIA officer – played by a ridiculously underused Frank Grillo, to take down a Greek magnate, played by noted Greek thespian Antonio Banderas – note sarcasm- who wants to destroy Europe in a bid to rebuild Greece’s economy. It’s unbelievably stupid, but all involved try hard, with Banderas mugging with the best of them, although seeing him and Salma Hayek together makes you wish for another Desperado rather than…whatever this is.

Hayek’s got a bigger role than she did in the last movie as Kinkaid’s crazy wife, with her being the third lead. The idea is that she and Darius want to start a family but can’t conceive – the closest thing to drama the movie has. I’ll give the movie this – this idea sets up the one really solid joke in the movie, which pays off in the last scene and almost makes me want to see another “Hitman’s something or other”… But not quite.

Reynolds and Jackson still have good chemistry and Hayek is game, but the action is barely passable. Sure, there’s a lot of carnage and they milk the R-rating for gory headshots. However, twenty four hours after seeing it I was barely able to recall any cool action moments, except for a fight that’s noteworthy because it involves eighty-four-year-old Morgan Freeman being a credible badass. He has a top-secret part that’s initially quite clever but turns out to be two-dimensional, a shame as some stakes and a tiny bit of drama might have actually come out of his role.

What’s also insane is that Frank Grillo, who’s turning into a big action star, never gets in on the action at all, with him playing exposition guy. What a waste! Jackson also seems a little less prominent this time, with them relying on him saying mother fucker a lot, where in the first movie, he had an arc and a killer last scene with Oldman’s baddie, who for some reason is credited here despite only showing up in a second of stock footage from the original

Overall, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is a huge misfire and tanks what could have been an ok B-grade side franchise for Reynolds, Jackson and Hayek. Too bad, as the original isn’t a bad little movie and this could have been a fun action flick to kick off the sum

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Deadline broke the story on Tuesday afternoon, and provided the following description:

Frida is a young, clever, Los Angeles cocktail waitress who has her eyes set on the prize: philanthropist and tech mogul Slater King (Tatum). When she skillfully maneuvers her way into King’s inner circle and ultimately an intimate gathering on his private island, she is ready for a journey of a lifetime. Despite the epic setting, beautiful people, ever-flowing champagne, and late-night dance parties, Frida can sense that there’s more to this island than meets the eye. Something she can’t quite put her finger on. Something a bit terrifying.

Many know Kravitz from her starring roles in films like Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men: First Class, Divergent, and Hulu’s High Fidelity, which she also executive produced. Soon she’ll become a part of the DCEU by playing Catwoman in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. It’s been said that Kravitz has been heading in a direction that takes her towards a director’s chair for several years. From what I can gather, she was waiting for the right project and wanted to make something that explores such topics as gender dynamics and corrupt power constructs.

Kravitz recently spoke with Deadline about Pussy Island and had this to say about the film’s provocative title:

“The title means a lot of things,” Kravitz said. “I started writing this story in 2017. As a woman in general, and a woman in this industry, I’ve experienced some pretty wild behavior from the opposite sex. The title was kind of a joke at first, this place where people would go, bring women, party, and hang out. The story evolved into something else, but the title wound up having multiple meanings. And it alludes to this time and place we claim to not be in anymore, in terms of sexual politics. People are evolving and changing but there is still a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths from past behavior. It’s a nod to that, but it’s also playful, and a really playful film in a lot of ways. I like that the title leads with that and has some heavy meaning beneath it.”

Later in the interview, Kravitz explains that she expressly wanted Tatum for the role of Slater King. After landing him to play the key character, the two began developing the script together.

“Chan was my first choice, the one I thought of when I wrote this character,” Kravitz said. “I just knew from Magic Mike and his live shows, I got the sense he’s a true feminist and I wanted to collaborate with someone who was clearly interested in exploring this subject matter.”

Tatum then told Deadline that he was rather surprised by the offer, but was intrigued nonetheless.

“It’s terrifying to talk about anything, when you start putting your toes over the line, and talking about men and women today, as things are starting to bubble to the surface and everybody is starting to have accountability,” Tatum told Deadline. “When Zoë called me about this, I was shocked. I didn’t know her. I’d watched her in movies, knew she produced High Fidelity, and had seen that, but I didn’t know she was creating on a level like this, where she wanted to direct. This came out of nowhere and the subject matter made me say, wait, why are you thinking about me for this? No one gives me a chance to play a role like this, everybody throws me down a different alley and expects me to do a certain thing. It was scary and liberating, just to be able to have a free conversation, where I was allowed to mess up, and say the wrong things. It became less about men and women and more of a human thing that will open people’s eyes, rather than us drawing lines in the sand, you’re a man, I’m a woman, it’s us against you thing. This goes deeper in a direction I’m fascinated by and I’m interested in seeing how people receive this and break it down in their own lives. And what they think the movie means and how would they have made decisions.

“Slater is a wild character, an extremely committed version — psychotic possibly — but an extreme version of myself,” Tatum said. “I’m very interested to see what humans are capable of, physically, mentally, spiritually, energetically, all of it. He wants to know what people are capable of, what they want, and what they are capable of when they want something. And how far are you willing to push yourself to get the thing you want. For me, that supersedes gender, race or religion, creed. That’s wildly fascinating to me.”

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According to Deadline, Boone has been plotting her exit for a while. In fact, she decided to leave well before The Blacklist was picked up for a ninth season. This gave the writers ample time to craft an exit that will hopefully be well-received by fans. While she’s walking away from The Blacklist, Boone already has other projects in the works to focus on.

During her time on The Blacklist, Boone’s Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Keen has gone from a rookie FBI agent to a criminal on the run. You might say that extenuating circumstances have transformed her throughout the years, leading her down a path toward the Dark Side. After watching ‘Red’ Reddington kill her mother, Liz made him her next and primary target. However, anyone who watched The Blacklist will know that Red is a slippery sort, and so their game of cat and mouse continues.

Before Boone leaves the show, The Blacklist creator Jon Bokenkamp has teased that the show will be “going back to the very beginning and unpack answers to eight years worth of questions.” Obviously, the writers have a lot of ground to cover. Let’s hope they’re up to the task.

How will The Blacklist move forward without Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Keen as a key component? Who else could serve as a proper foil for Spader’s Reddington? I know a lot of people who still love this show, and they’ll be dying to find out.

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