TL;DR – ludicrous plot, over-the-top action, and predictable = turn off your brain + pass the popcorn.
Review
Every now and then a sequel comes out that surpasses the original. The Godfather Part II, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens and The Dark Knight to name a few.
This movie sequel is not one of them.
Mind you, it never aims to be. Instead, it takes the first movie, throws in Salma Hayek and takes the road most travelled. Car chases, guns, gruesome deaths, and plenty of fist fights with the basic premise that somehow only a bodyguard suffering from mental health issues (Michael Bryce played by Ryan Reynolds) and an assassin that caused said issues (Darius Kincaid played by Samuel L. Jackson) can prevent a European meltdown concocted by bad guy (Aristotle Papdopolous played by Antonio Banderas).
All the cast (except Morgan Freeman) play their roles with relish. Reynolds and Jackson bounce off each other with enough chemistry that you remember why the first film gave you all those chuckles.
Salma Hayek plays the wife in the movie’s title, Sonia Kincaid, and the glimpses of her in the first movie is unleashed in the sequel with enough vitriol and censorship-be-damned dialogue that you won’t know whether to laugh or be shocked, but more than likely it’ll be a combination of the two.
Banderas is suitably smooth and slimy in equal measure as the terrorist seeking to collapse the European infrastructure. I won’t reveal his dastardly plans but I think the writers attempted a “Mission Impossible” type evilness but came off more “Austin Powers-Dr. Evil” type evilness. Nevertheless, Banderas uses his eyebrows with enough frown that you are never quite sure when he’s going to blow his lid.
This leads me to Morgan Freeman who plays Senior. The writers have Senior in this movie for a specific comedic reason. But once that comedic reason is revealed, his character is then meant to dive into a sort of relationship gravitas with Michael Bryce. These sequence of events are sorely lacking and Freeman, for all his acting genius, looks disinterested in trying to make more out of his role. Not that the writers give him much assistance in this regard either. It’s all rather ho-hum and leads to predictable twists that feel superfluous.
Overall though, if you switch off your brain, you can enjoy the ride as much as the first movie albeit with fewer laughs probably because you’re expecting them now.
6 out of 10
JCEnno 