.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Friday, March 07, 2008

Hitman


****½ Hitman. Action/adventure.

Directed by: Xavier Gens.
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko


Carl and I saw this at the Hercules, without the boys.

Timothy Olyphant is the eponymous hitman, known only as #47. He's assigned to kill the Russian president Belikoff, and does so--but later the man appears in public, alive and well. And there's a witness: Belikoff's mistress, Nika (Olga Kurylenko).

Now he's on the run, dodging the Russians, Interpol (Dougray Scott), and his fellow assassins, with Nika in tow.

I always read through the Amazon reviews to refresh my memory, but this time I'm going to address them directly, because I swear I saw a different movie.
Only fans of the video game would like this movie.
I've never played, seen, or even heard of the video game. I did suspect the movie was made from a video game or comic, though.

Bald head, bar code: awfully conspicuous for an assassin
Yes, I agree with this. I rationalized it away--that he was so skilled that he didn't have to be inconspicuous, but it grated nonetheless.

The bar codes and the numbers weren't explained.
Well, they were if you watched Dark Angel. In fact, there were a lot of similarities between this and Dark Angel: secret government agency raising and training assassins/super soldiers. Bar codes, though in Dark Angel they were on the back of the neck instead of the back of the head. Numbers instead of names (Max & co. named themselves). And those scenes from 47's childhood/training--the kids with shaved heads in blue hospital gowns, and some of the training scenes--I swear they were taken straight from Dark Angel. Since I loved Dark Angel, this only made me like the movie more.

"This is definitely a flick for testosterone-laden males, as the experience is obviously not geared toward the female audience."
Looks down: boobs, curves, no penis. Laughs aloud.

"Olyphant doesn't have the presence of a suave and deadly assassin." and various complaints about him not knowing what to do with a willing prostitute.
Ah, but he's not supposed to be suave. Just deadly. He's supposed to be actually fairly innocent, despite the killing, because of his upbringing. I thought that came across extremely well. The soundtrack (Ave Maria during a killing spree, for example) really emphasizes that, as does his question to the Interpol agent at the very beginning of the film. I thought Olyphant portrayed the contrast of what's basically an assassin monk perfectly.

If you haven't played the game, you'll be lost.
Nope. Didn't seem to be.

For action junkies.
Yes, indeed.


Categories: , ,

Labels: , ,


Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?