Hitman (2007/I)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Xavier Gens

Writer (WGA):

Skip Woods (written by)

Release Date:

21 November 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Plot:

A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Organization' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Russia and Eastern Europe.

Plot Keywords:

Interpol | Agent 47 | Assassin | Shot In The Head | Moscow Russia

Awards:

1 win

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Nov. 9	5:30 PM	MAX
Sat. Nov. 14	8:15 PM	MAX
Fri. Nov. 20	10:30 AM	MAX

Cast

Timothy Olyphant	...	Agent 47
Dougray Scott	...	Mike Whittier
Olga Kurylenko	...	Nika Boronina
Robert Knepper	...	Yuri Marklov
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Mikhail Belicoff
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Udre Belicoff
Michael Offei	...	Jenkins
Christian Erickson	...	General Kormarov
Eriq Ebouaney	...	Bwana Ovie
Joe Sheridan	...	Captain Gudnayev
James Faulkner	...	Smith Jamison
Jean-Marc Bellu	...	Hitman #2
Nicky Naude	...	Hitman #3
Abdou Sagna	...	Hitman #4
Ilya Nikitenko	...	Hitman #5

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

89 min | 90 min (unrated version)

Country:

France | USA

Language:

English | Russian | Serbo-Croatian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX | DTS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-12 | UK:15 | Finland:K-15 | Ireland:16 | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Ontario) | South Africa:16 | Hungary:18 | Canada:18A (Alberta/Manitoba) | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | Malaysia:18PL | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | Germany:18 | France:Unrated | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R (certificate #43962) | Argentina:13 (re-rating) | Japan:PG-12 | New Zealand:R16 | Ireland:18 | Denmark:15 | Netherlands:16 | Austria:16 | Spain:18 | Brazil:16 | Iceland:16 | Canada:13+ (Régie du Cinéma Québec)

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, South Africa

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Both Olga Kurylenko and Xavier Gens (director) said the train platform sequence was one of their favorite scenes - a scene that would later be replaced shortly before the movie was released.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Since the movie is filmed in Bulgaria, many road signs are in Bulgarian, not Russian.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mike Whittier: Fuck!
Agent 47: It's not there. It's in the kitchen, where you left it.
Mike Whittier: How'd you get in?
Agent 47: You have a nice family. They're fine. Alive. Asleep.

Movie Connections:

Features Hitman: Blood Money (2006) (VG)

Soundtrack:

As Vezez Amanha

A great movie; how a video game adaptation should be done

Going into the adaptation of the Hit-man video game series, I was very doubtful of the quality of the movie I was going to see. Video game adaptations don't have a very good history, and are almost always destined to fail except in some rare cases like the Resident Evil series. Hit-man is one of those rare cases. The film kept me entertained from beginning to end and left me wanting more. While it certainly isn't perfect, it isn't a bad idea to see this movie to see how a video game adaptation should be done.

The film has a great mixture of plot and action. The plot is intriguing and interesting, and the action is awesome and has some very nice fight scenes, some of the best I've seen in awhile. The film does take itself pretty seriously, which at some times can be good and at others can be bad. There's the occasional joke cracked here and there, like the two gamers who are playing Hit-man: Blood Money when Agent 47 crashes into the room (which is also a great nod to the game), and Nika adding a bit of humor in here and there, but it mostly remains serious. Like the games, it takes itself pretty seriously in some parts and just gets ridiculous in others. This can amount to both good and bad things. At some parts it is just too serious for what is going on, refusing to have a little fun with it. And in others, it just goes a little over the top, but it doesn't really matter, as that just adds on to the fun. For the most part, the mixture of fun and serious scenes works out rather well.

The actors do a very nice job in portraying their characters. Timothy Olyphant is surprisingly very good in the role of Hit-man. I didn't think he would amount to much as he just isn't the type of actor I would expect to portray Agent 47. But he portrayed the character with a good amount of skill, as if he had already done it before. There is one problem with him. If you have seen his other movies (which consist of movies such as Live Free or Die Hard and Scream 2), you might have noticed that he shows a lot of emotion in his acting. Not necessarily intentionally, but his face just shows a lot of expressions. Agent 47 isn't really supposed to show much emotion. He does an adequate job in holding it back, but sometimes it just really shows. Now, this isn't really a problem to the ordinary moviegoer, but this might irritate a fan of the game. Olga Kurylenko, who plays Nika, does a nice job, especially for one of her very first projects and her being a foreigner having to speak English, which is probably her second language. It will be interesting to see her future in the business. Dougray Scott's performance is pretty good, and he portrays a pretty interesting character. Everyone else does an adequate job in playing his or her characters.

Overall, Hit-man, while flawed in some parts is the right way to do a video game adaptation, and should please fans of the series as well as people who have never heard of it.

8/10

(Sorry about the wrong spelling of H i t m a n, IMDb automatically changes it to Hit-man)