Action thriller depends on profanity for laughs

in vain” variety – and the killing is very casual.

No doubt there are many people in this world who kill without conscience, and you feel the horrible ruthlessness of the murders committed by the movie’s villain, former Belarus president Vladislav Dukhovich (portrayed so well by Gary Oldman).

But the two “heroes”, professional bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) and the convicted hitman he is hired to protect, Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson), also have a high body count between them. Perhaps we should care less, because they’re killing baddies after all, but they do it with such flippancy it ventures into Tarantino territory.

The story starts out with Bryce at the top of his game – providing bodyguarding services to wealthy but shady clients and boasting of never having lost a client, until he does.

Fast forward to the present and Bryce is down on his luck, protecting a lesser kind of client.

Meanwhile at The Hague, Dukhovich is on trial in the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity in his native Belarus. But a conviction depends on testimony from Kincaid, imprisoned in the UK. He accepts a deal for amnesty for his wife Sonia (Salma Hayek), who is in a Dutch prison.

It’s getting Kincaid to The Hague that proves the challenge, as Dukhovich’s goons are out to make sure it never happens.

When the Interpol convoy transporting Kincaid is shot up, agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung) barely gets away with Kincaid and, suspecting a mole within Interpol, makes a call to her old flame, Bryce, for help.

He takes the job reluctantly, especially when he sees his old nemesis Kincaid, and we find the two have a history.

A reluctant and unlikely duo working together is a tried and tested action formula, and there are plenty of thrills and spills along the way as they try to get to the court on time. The best edge-of-your-seat action is the car chase along the canals of Amsterdam, which required some excellent stunt work.