Friday 14 March 2008

Movie Review - Hitman


Director - Xavier Gens.
Cast - Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Robert Knepper and Olga Kurylenko.

Hitman started life as a video game and was popular enough to spawn three sequels with another due for release next year. With a large and devoted fan base a film adaptation was inevitable. The success of video game adaptations is patchy at best but the Hitman games are quite cinematic and so I was hopeful the movie would deliver on the video game’s promise.

In the lead role as anti-hero Agent 47 we find the perfectly cast Timothy Olyphant who we last saw as John McClain's foe in Die Hard 4.0. As we saw from that performance he is more than capable of inhabiting a controlled, detached and emotionally stunted character. The film opens with a brief overview of how Agent 47 came to be as we see a succession of young boys being turned into soulless killing machines. We then move to the present day where we find Agent 47 surprising his pursuer Mike Whittier, in his study. After a brief exchange we rewind to three months earlier where Whittier, an Interpol agent played by Dougray Scott, is inching ever closer to his big prize, the ghost-like Agent 47.

There is a plot involving the Russian president and his body doubles and a quasi-romantic relationship with Nika Boronina who is played by Ukrainian actress and upcoming Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. The plot is merely a vehicle to carry the set pieces and the relationship between Agent 47 and Nika is where the humorous moments in the movie are found. The set pieces are not as bombastic as other Hollywood blockbusters but are impressive in more subtle ways. There is a delicacy and efficiency in how Agent 47 operates which is amplified by the stylistic way in which the movie is shot. The camera swoops in and out quickly and some of the shots are framed beautifully, particularly in the train station. It is no surprise to find Luc Besson's name associated with Hitman albeit only as a producer.

The action moves along in a bit of hurry so concentration is important. The dynamic between Agent 47 and the two Interpol agents is strained however, mainly due to the absolutely awful performances of Dougray Scott and his sidekick Robert Knepper. They are creakingly wooden though their cause is not helped with their characters being written in such a ham fisted way. The classical score is elegant and lends the movie a maturity not often found in action thrillers, let alone video game adaptations. There is nothing to dislike about Hitman but there is nothing to really fall in love with either. That said, I found myself disappointed when the credits began to roll.

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