‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard,’ ‘Good Time’ bring action

By Wire Services ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ ★½

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Elodie Yung, Gary Oldman (R), 1:58 If you’re feeling nostalgic for a ’90s-style buddy action comedy with a bit of present-day edge, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” is for you. Directed by Patrick Hughes (“The Expendables 3”) from a script by Tom O’Connor that could have been written in 2005, this film depends on its star power, with Samuel L. Jackson playing the hitman, and Ryan Reynolds the bodyguard. They make a fine pair of unlikely partners, and present a few well-placed punchlines with expert delivery. Jackson, in particular, is a treat, whether singing Italian folk songs with nuns, or doling out romantic advice via speakerphone during a car chase. The Jackson character, Darius Kincaid, is supposed to give testimony against a bloodthirsty Belarussian dictator, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) in exchange for the release of his feisty wife, Sonia (Salma Hayek), from a Dutch prison. Kincaid said he has proof of Dukhovich’s war crimes. When the Interpol transfer of Kincaid goes south, agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung) calls up her former boyfriend Michael Bryce (Reynolds) for backup. Bryce and Kincaid have a long, thorny history as adversaries, so their 24-hour jaunt from England to the Netherlands proves quite eventful. The film’s violence is exhausting and dull. Hughes shoots every scene with backlight from open windows, creating a gauzy haze. And unfortunately this particular story seems the least interesting to tell about these characters. The flashbacks to Kincaid’s first kill and his meet-cute with Sonia would have made a better movie. In fact, Sonia is the most compelling character in the whole thing.

‘Good Time’ ★★★

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Taliah Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Peter Verby (R) 1:40 This swift, relentless chase thriller and exhilarating mood piece from directors Joshua and Benny Safdie recalls the great, gritty crime dramas of Sidney Lumet and Abel Ferrara. The Safdie brothers (their earlier films are “Daddy Longlegs,” 2009, and “Heav- en Knows What,” 2015) have cast a movie star — Robert Pattinson, the 31-year-old British heartthrob who came to fame playing a shimmery vampire in the “Twilight” movies — to play Constantine Nikas, a scuzzy smalltimer from Queens and a catastrophically inept criminal but nimble improvisational genius who gets himself out of one hair-raising situation only to plunge immediately into another. Connie’s sole redeeming quality is his love for his brother, Nick (played by Benny Safdie), a hearingimpaired, mentally disabled young man. We meet Nick during a psychiatric evaluation in which a history of neglect and abuse emerges. Connie drags Nick out of the evaluation promising a big payday and a fresh start in Virginia, and makes his brother an accomplice in a clumsy bank robbery that plays out with tension and dark humor. After a botched getaway, Nick is arrested, leaving it to the fugitive Connie to bust him out of jail. Connie starts by trying to get his girlfriend, Corey (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to post his brother’s bail. Then a friend named Ray (Buddy Duress), and Ray’s access to a secret LSD stash, sends Connie on yet another harebrained getrich-quick scheme. When cinematographer Sean Price Williams isn’t zooming the camera above the city in overhead establishing shots, he’s locking the actors in tight, jittery close-ups that convey both mobility and entrapment. The faster these guys run, the more the noose tightens around their necks. The action plays out in cramped, squalid settings — the back of an ambulance, the interior of a jail cell, the dark rooms of an apartment that briefly becomes the saddest of safe houses. Most of the time, we’re watching Connie think his way out of every predicament. In a story that effortlessly embodies the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Safdies’ home city, Connie enjoys a measure of social privilege that some other characters do not. Blink and you’ll miss moment when a couple of police officers, spying Connie and his friend Crystal, target the African American teenager, rather than the white bank robber whose face has been plastered all over the news. This rare genre piece refuses to equate entertainment with an escape from reality, or to turn a tale of foolish men into a celebration of stupidity. The deftness of Pattinson’s performance makes it hard not to root for Connie Nikas, but that’s no reason to mistake him for a hero.