Director: Xavier Gens (Frontière(s))
Producers: Adrian Askarieh, Luc Besson, Chuck Gordon, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen, Michael Offei
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 100 min.
From the first trailer, I wasn’t sold on Hitman. I was vaguely aware of the video game it was based on but the teaser failed to sell me on Timothy Olyphant as a cold and heartless, professional hitman. I was convinced this was the role to bring Vin Diesel back and I simply couldn’t let go of that. Then I saw the trailer and was sold – it didn’t just look like Olyphant pulled it off, it looked like he was rocking it.
Walking out of the theater I had a sudden thought: I’m a whore for mindless and bad action flicks. It’s a fact proven by some of the movies I watch when I just want stylishly bland fun: The Fast and the Furious, XXX, Pitch Black. Now I can add
By no stretch of the imagination is this a good movie. The basic story line, something to do with Russians, body doubles, hired hitmen, Interpol, FSB, an ‘organization’, and a cover up, is all over the place and that’s really as much information as I can give you because it simply makes very little sense. It’s enough to move the story along, jumping from vignette to vignette, sometimes not even well, all the while chugging towards some sort of resolution. But lets face it, this was never about the story, though I wish it had been because there are inklings of potential greatness there, it was all about the action.
For an action film, there are very few all out action sequences but the few big set pieces are well choreographed and fun to watch but please, do yourself a favour and leave reality at the door, some of this stuff is completely implausible never mind believable but it still makes for decent entertainment.
So if the story is crap and the action is mediocre, what on earth is there to make this at all redeemable? There are a few things actually and the first is none other than Timothy Olyphant. The guy is not likely to be awarded with any Oscar nominations for his work here but he does a remarkably good job of becoming Agent 47. He’s got the appearance, the gaze and even the walk down to a tee and that walk could not have been easy to master – it looks a little computerized and it completely works. There are a few moments that feel completely forced and out of character but they’re all problems that can be attributed to the cheesy script. He’s a better bad guy when he simply doesn’t talk, Olyphant is excellent at conveying information with his face, and someone managed to notice this and capitalized on it as much as possible.
The other redeemable thing is the look of this film, something which I credit to director Xavier Gens and cinematographer Laurent Barès. I’ve never seen either of these guys’ previous works but the trailer for Gens’ other film (Frontière(s)) certainly has a different aesthetic that comes through in spades here. It looks sleek when it needs to, video game like on a couple of occasions but it’s the little things, like what people are wearing, the look and direction of extras and sideline characters, that really made this fun to watch though the occasional intentional (and unintentional) laughs were a nice bonus.
As a movie, Hitman is quite a mess. The narrative is all over the place and sometimes completely laughable, the story isn’t clear and even the basics are hard to follow, but I was sold by the aesthetic of the movie and by Olyphant in particular. This feels like a European flick trying hard to be an American action blockbuster and though it may not be a great aspiration, it certainly fits inline with and surpasses the others of its type.
Click “play” to see the trailer:
Links:
IMDb profile – Full cast and crew
Official Site
Flixster Profile for Hitman
If you watch the credits you’ll actually see that Vin Diesel ended up with a producer credits.
Oh and yes I saw this and yes it was completely forgettable.
I’m not convinced about Olyphant. I liked him in Deadwood and disliked him in everything else. I couldn’t tell if he was acting poorly here or if it was really just the bad script that was the problem.
2.5/5! That’s more than I expected. I’ve heard lots of bad things about this but you may have convinced me to at least put in the queue and watch it some random Wednesday night when nothing else is on.
I do like Olyphant (Go) so that’s a plus right there. Also, aesthetics can sometimes make a film. Look at Brotherhood of the Wolf. Probably a pretty garbage film if not for how gorgeous it looks.
Oh and for the record, I LOVE Pitch Black. In my top 50 easy.
The Bar Code
Looking for Revenge
Sequel Please
Frontière(s) Is loud (LOUD! LOUD!) and pretty stylish in an overkill sort of way. I liked some of it, but it felt that that film existed only to raise the volume on some other classic horror films. It had that ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ feel to it. I don’t know if that is the case with Hitman or not. Since I’m a fan of both Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet, I’m sure I’ll give Hitman a go at some point or another on DVD.
Have to say this, I’m usually on board with anything with Ulrich Thomsen in it. Fine actor there. Surprising to see him in a film like this, as he usually only pops up in Danish cinema.
(Oh, and put me firmly in the Pitch Black is highly overrated camp. I thought that it was curiously Low Rent, where as the Sequel (which like cost 1000x more) was overblown without being enough fun. Colm Feore hamming it up was a bit surreal though, and almost put The Chronicles of Riddick in the ‘like it’ camp for me.
John – I think it’s mostly script. At times it almost looked like he was going to lose it trying to say his line. I guess some of it could be his attempt to be really cold ALL THE TIME but it worked for me.
Colleen – You know it girl. Sign me up.
Loud works for me, probably one of the reasons I actually quite enjoy these bad action movies.
Oh shoot – and John – yeah, we sat through the credits and had a little laugh at seeing Diesel as exec producer.
Definitely a movie to watch only when nothing better is around. Having said that, the story is better than “Die Another Day”, IMHO, doesn’t match the effects, of course. There was something about the movie that kept me engaged … besides some of the action and Olga Kurylenko. The emotionless, monastic almost machine like killer empathizing and demonstrating an almost Dark Knight moral code. And somehow Dougray Scott’s character and performance provided an anchor throughout the story.
I liked Pitch Black and XXX. I wouldn’t put Hitman in the same group.
Through out the movie I kept imagining Jason Statham as the Hitman.
” the story is better than “Die Another Day” ”
That reminds me of a quote from OUT OF SIGHT:
Cheadle: That’s Himey. Protege of mine. Ranked number thirty-two in the federal prison system.
Clooney: Thirty-two?
Cheadle: That’s Right.
Clooney: Out of what? Twenty?
ha.
“Through out the movie I kept imagining Jason Statham as the Hitman.”
If only Shoot-em-Up and Hitman merged into one film. The final product probably would have been miles ahead of either film.
(Oh, and Transporter 2 is the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Still no interest in Louis Letretier’s THE HULK sequel though.)
Oh see, I liked this way better than XXX though Pitch Black is the better of the three.
As for Transporter 2 – oh ow! I liked the first one, the second one bit the bullet and I like Hitman better than both.
i got the impression while talking to my friend (who loves the video game series) after we walked out of the theater that Hitman had the same major issue that Silent Hill did: namely, that the movie didn’t give audiences who weren’t familiar with the source material anything to latch on to. since my buddy knew the back story and the character going into the movie, he had no problem buying almost everything that happened onscreen. my reaction was (to be kind) mixed.
i dig olyphant as an actor and i have a soft spot for mindless action flicks myself (though after being considerably let down by Shooter, Crank, Shoot ‘Em Up and Smokin’ Aces, i’m wondering if that soft spot is hardening a bit), but i couldn’t get over how bad the writing and acting really were. it seemed to rip off way too many globetrotting spy movies (Bond and Bourne specifically) on top of all that. besides some decent action sequences, i didn’t find much to like about Hitman.
the fact that diesel produced it kinda threw me for a loop, but it made sense, not that i’m a fan. Pitch Black never sold me on him being a frontrunner in the next generation of action stars.
did anyone else get a luc besson vibe at the beginning of the flick? the suggestion in the review that Hitman felt like a euro action film brought that thought back to me.
Kurt,
Pitch Black is over rated? Hardly. Barely anyone even saw it theatrically. If anything it’s under rated. Fans of the Alien franchise should love it. It’s got a GREAT style. The lens filters and grainy feel is wicked awesome.
And although it’s a simple story, it’s got alot to say about loyalty, trust, fear and courage. I equally liked the astronomical side to the story as well. Along with a “Deep Blue Sea” type of ending, as popcorn movies go, it’s one of the best.
Also Riddick could’ve been a great iconic character.
The sequel sucked ass though. I’ll give you that.
Andrew – yup. Got the Besson feel for sure but I knew it was coming when I noticed the film was partly funded by Europacorp.
Totally agree on the Bourne globetrotting aspect with all the different headings and jumping from location to location. To be honest, I found that particularly distracting. It didn’t really add anything to the story and if anything, it just watered things down a little more.
I still disagree on the acting. Not to say it was great but I think Olyphant in particular really captured the character.
re: acting – i didn’t think the acting itself was as much to blame as the writing. the hammy dougray scott aside, olyphant is a talented enough actor to be able to pull off whatever he needs to in order to put forth a good performance. but the guy just looked like a deer in the headlights for much of the movie, and i could tell that it was because he just couldn’t reasonably sell 90% of the crap he had to recite. it was painful to watch. and that girl… she could have come away as a decent noir moll if the script didn’t have her spouting inane childhood stories about chipmunks and grapes every 15 minutes. it was some of the most forced character development i’d seen in a while. the writing was absolutely to blame for whatever was lacking in the performances.
I concur 110%!
I liked Olyphant best when HE WASN’T TALKING!