Hilariously funny, slick and action packed but a really tricky movie to categorise. Perhaps it’s black comedy, very black. But black comedy is usually a bit more light-hearted. This movie is funny but it is NOT light hearted! There are torture scenes, a lot of violence and swearing. It is a high action thriller that just happens to be hilarious. Thrillers are not normally funny – I like it!

Samuel L Jackson hasn’t been this cool since his Jackie Brown/Pulp Fiction days! Okay maybe he has, he is always cool! Ryan Reynolds was equally superb and as a duo it was delicious, so good I had to watch it again! 

So, quick synopsis without spoilers is that an Executive AAA rated protection agent – Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is reluctantly called in by his ex-girlfriend to help protect an inprisoned hitman called Darius Kincaid (Jackson) and get him to The Hague in The Netherlands (from Coventry) in 27 hours so that he can testify against an evil dictator. Without Kincaids testimony the ruler will be set free. 

Now with spoilers…

There were so many clever and funny lines I loved:

“Are you cleaning the car with old a**holes?!”

Yes there is a lot of swearing!

“I’m trying to keep you out of harms way” 

“I am harms way!”

“That motherf***er is unkillable!”

One of the best bits is on the car journey when Kincaid makes up a song about life and continues to sing “nobody gets out alive” it goes on so long and becomes so annoying (reminiscent of Donkey from Shrek “Can I hum it?!”) that Bryce starts singing “I saw the sign” in a high-pitched voice to stop him. So funny!

Another very clever thing they do is juxtapose violence and romance. When Kincaid meets his wife for the first time the song “Hello” (Lionel Ritchie) is playing over a violent scene of her killing about 10 dudes in a bar it’s so incongruous – pure genius! It happens a few times. 

Overall this a very clever movie with a superb acting duo, Mrs Kincaid is played by Selma Hayek, she plays the angry wife role excellently. The only minor annoyance is the strange accent of Bryce’s ex girlfriend, it is so weird I can’t even place it. I think she was going for British but it’s odd to say the least. It does not detract from the movies’ pure brilliance though. 

Go see it! It’s on Netflix now.