Film Review

09 January 2009 04:30 BST

Hitman

Directed by Xavier Gens, out November 30th in cinemas, starring Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Ulrich Thomsen, 93 mins.

In a nutshell…

The hunter becomes the hunted.

What's it all about?

Educated in 'Hitman High' an organisation that use weapons rather then pens, Agent 47 (Olyphant) only known as a number, is a gun for hire and has been assigned a new mission (by a talking computer, I must add), to kill the Russian president. When things don't go according to plan the hitman gets entangled in Russian politics. As well as having Interpol and the Russian Military on his back, to add to the picture, an annoying Russian prostitute is somehow embroiled in the mess, making matters a little bit more complicated for the trained killer (he should have kept her in the boot throughout the whole movie!).

His journey towards his assignment encounters much adventure with scenes that include jumping through hotel windows, a choreographed fight and bloodshed in a religious setting.

He is known as 'the ghost' by the law, but what's not obvious about a baldy with a barcode tattooed on the back of his head? (Which, I must say, he fails miserably in trying to cover up, wouldn't it be wise to wear a hat or pair of shades if you were on the run?)

Who's in it?

Lead actor Timothy Olyphant is well known for his role in HBO's Deadwood and more recently starred as Bruce Willis' nemesis in the smash hit Die Hard 4.0.

The casting of Olyphant can not be faulted, with his dark and mysterious qualities perfect for the role. With the physical strength, intensity, grace and elegance inextricably linked with a character like Agent 47 had to possess, the actor admitted that the hardest thing about playing this part was going completely bald.

Dougray Scott is also not new to the bad boy scene, having played the baddie in Mission Impossible II, earning him a Blockbuster Entertainment Award Nomination as Favourite Villain. Scott's role as Mike Whittier, an Interpol detective obsessed with catching Agent 47, proves to be unconvincing, with Scott quite a bore for much of the film.

'Has-been' model Olga Kurylenko is by no means a newcomer, having starred in a couple of low budget flicks such as Paris, Je t'aime alongside Elijah Wood and The Ring Finger, for which she received a best actress award at the Brooklyn International film festival in 2006. Discarded by Agent 47's target Belicoff, her feminine wiles seem to transform the hitman's somewhat-uninterested way with the ladies. He starts to show some kindness by removing her from the boot in which she's been trapped and instead of shooting her in the head, when she makes a pass at him, goes for the far more polite option of drugging her.

What attracted director Gens to Hitman was the originality of the different characters, the atmosphere and the graphic universe in which the movie is set. He looked to the compelling loners more associated with the Westerns or the solitary spies of the Cold War-era thrillers, wanting Agent 47 to be a kind of 'lone hero'. Hitman is only Gen's second outing in the director's chair, having worked on Ronin, Maximum Risk, Double Team and Le Bossu.

As an example…

"You don't want to f**k me; you don't want to kill me. I've never known such indifference in my entire life."- Nika (Kurylenko)

"You know, you're really quite charming when you aren't killing people," Nika

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Gens wanted this movie to avoid the 'pitfalls' of videogame adaptations - unfortunately, he didn't manage to do so. Critics have loved to hate this movie and by passing itself off as a Bond substitute, the film has punched far above its weight.

The likelihood of it going any further then the top ten movies of the week is extremely doubtful though there's a slight chance that there might be a herd of 15-year-old boys queuing up at the cinema following its release.

It has been suggested as being by far the best videogame to movie conversion but, to be honest, it does not face much competition. With notable failures such as the three Resident Evil movies, Silent Hill and Street Fighter, it's hard to remember the last successful videogame adaptation, if in fact there ever was one.

Hopefully the makers will be content with a couple of good reviews but as far as Oscars are concerned, it's obviously not going happen.

What the others say

"French director Xavier Gens' second feature is better than anything in the genre directed by Paul WS Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil) or Uwe Boll (BloodRayne), but topping that pair isn't much of a challenge." - Daniel Etherington, Channel 4 Film

"Of all the skills your kick-ass professional murderer would want on his or her CV, one imagines that "instant recognisability" wouldn't rate very highly." - Paul Arendt, BBC Movies

So is it any good?

Is the sky green?

Let's not beat around the bush here, it's a resounding no.

The trouble is, if you expect much from this film, you are guaranteed to feel disappointed. The storyline is baffling, that and turns out to be completely underwhelming once midly attentive viewers have sussed it. To call this average is to give unnecessary praise.

The film was inspired by an okay game which when transposed onto the big screen has miserably failed as predicted. It's not an attention-grabber and has about as much humor as a funeral on your birthday. A needless addition to a genre that enjoys making pointless sequels, not much can be expected of the franchise's future. This film is proof of a film maker’s inability to turn a half decent videogames into a good quality movie.

Agent 47's contradictory actions of killing bad guys (when he is not exactly Gandhi) asks audiences the question of whose side are you on? More importantly, do you really care what happens next?


6/10

Natalie Gurvitz

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