Adam Sandler may have built an entire career on jetting off to glamorous locations and churning out tedious movies as a result, but they more often than not tend to find success regardless of a critical pounding. Clearly, trying to replicate that formula in a buddy caper didn’t work, because Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard turned out to be an interminable bore.
The opening installment proved to be a surprise sleeper hit that ended up earning $183 million at the box office, even if it was the laziest possible version of the inspired pairing that teamed Ryan Reynolds with Samuel L. Jackson and relied almost entirely on their megawatt charisma and screen presence to try and elevate it above tedium.
A sequel was nigh-on inevitable then, but with a paltry 26 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a theatrical run that yielded over $110 million less than its predecessor, it’s safe to say the novelty had worn off. In fact, it wouldn’t be outside the realms of imagination to say Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is one of the most noteworthy wastes of talent ever assembled for a big budget genre film in recent memory.
Reynolds and Jackson are joined by Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo, Richard E. Grant, and Tom Hopper to name only a few of the key players, but there’s barely a shred of originality, inventiveness, or entertainment to be found. Naturally, though, because the film involves big names doing broadly comedic things while shooting guns, it’s circled back around to become a streaming smash hit.
Per FlixPatrol, not only is Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard one of the top-viewed titles on Netflix, it’s also snaked its way onto the Prime Video and Starz charts, too. Let’s just hope the inevitable threequel brings something new to the table, or audiences will be asleep long before the credits roll.