Following the events of the first film, bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) has had his ‘Triple A’ bodyguard license revoked. Whilst on a sabbatical for his mental health Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek) storms in amongst a hail of bullets and enlists his help to rescue Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). 

Plot wise this sequel is even more bizarre than the original. This time the dastardly EU are posing economic sanctions on Greece and the evil Aristotle Papdopolous (Antonio Banderas) is so enraged about what they are doing to his adopted country he decides to destroy Europe with the use of a virus that he will upload into the power grid. Cliched Interpol agent Bobby O’Neill (Frank Grillo) is prepared to use some bad people to get to the worse people and enlists our protagonists help. 

The difference between the two films seems to be the pivot between self awareness from the film makers. Where the original was a straightforward action movie with quips this sequel seems to have triple downed on the ridiculousness and upped the ante on how dumb it can be. I described the original as “entertaining enough, but also painfully generic”. This sequel on the other hand was genuinely funny in places and seems to have honed in on its generic nature as a source of humour. 

The highlight of the entire show was Salma Hayek’s foul mouthed and short fused con-woman. The scene where she has some nuns making the sign of the cross because of her brazen language is just one of many where she flies off the handle to hilarious effect. Then there are running gags throughout where Reynolds character seems to take the sort of physical punishment only a cartoon character could survive whilst constantly lamenting the loss of his bodyguard license. 

Perhaps the fact I watched this on a streaming service, purposely skipping the cinema release and that this sequel runs twenty minutes shorter than the original at a relatively brisk one-hundred minutes is another important factor. It does not outstay it’s welcome and my expectations were certainly lower. 

One final point, do not come to this film expecting high quality action sequences. They are passable at best and the focus is very much on the dumb comedy. 

A much more entertaining sequel by virtue of it being even sillier than the original.