Ryan Reynolds has begun filming his first movie since his massive comeback in Deadpool, which now stands as the highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S.
Reynolds stars in The Hitman’s Bodyguard, playing Michael Brice, a top agent assigned to protect ruthless retired assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). Not only are they in an odd-couple scenario, they’ve also got one day to travel from London to the Hague. To add to the complications, an Eastern European dictator (Gary Oldman) is sending a small army to take them out.
Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3) is directing with a script by Tom O’Connor (the straight-to-video Bruce Willis thriller Fire with Fire). That doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence, but at its best it could be in Midnight Run territory.
Reynolds and Jackson should play off each other well, and hopefully Oldman will be on top of his game, playing a villain as terrifying and sharply realized as those he played in The Professional and The Fifth Element. The film should open later this year.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
