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| Available at Amazon.com |
In today’s modern era, it seems that everything old is new again. Remakes and sequels of long dead franchises have come, and are coming, and a film series like the High School Musical is somehow avante garde film-making. So it’s interesting to see the state of affairs for action films. Still some of the best draws on a regular basis, action films have gone back to their established roots in the ‘80s for new inspiration. And like Hitman, the new wave of action films have all the simplistic rules and dialogue of their predecessors but without any of the fighting spirit.
Based on a videogame series of the same name, Timothy Olyphant steps into the shoes of Agent 47. A hired killer of some repute, Agent 47 has a latest assignment to take care of: Russian president Mkhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen). When an apparent clean kill by 47 turns out otherwise, as Belicoff seemingly appears to have nothing more than a scratch after taking a rifle round through the nasal cavity, Agent 47 is pursued by his own organization as well as police from Interpol and FSB (Russian secret police). Together with a prostitute (Olga Kurylenko) at his side, 47 is on the run while trying to finish the job he started.
But the problem is that the film takes us right away into the action without any sort of setup. While in some films it works to our advantage, in Hitman it requires an amount of working knowledge about the video game series to be able to grasp it. Agent 47 is our hero but only by default; he’s not a good man and doesn’t act like one but neither does anyone else in the film as well. It’s more of a matter of being the least evil person available as opposed to being a hero (or even an anti-hero).
While the lack of a setup could be forgiven with top notch action sequences, everything in the film is derivative of something else. Xavier Gens has essentially tried to duplicate sequences from John Woo throughout the film, except without the sort of heart behind them. We could care about Tequila and rooted him on; Agent 47 is just trying to be the last man standing. It’s disappointing because the film’s grand finale is more of a technical exhibition than an emotional clincher. The scenes themselves are packed with action, but Gens seems to want Olyphant to do a weak Chow Yun-Fat impression as opposed to making the character his own. It’s weak and Olyphant doesn’t show the sort of charisma he is capable of.
Hitman follows the Resident Evil series and other video games adapted into films as being remarkably poor in quality. While fans of the game will certainly not be disappointed, everyone else surely will be.
Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format with a widescreen presentation, the film has a gorgeous presentation. The audio comes through cleanly and clearly, using the system fully. The film may not be of the highest quality, but the audio/visual presentation is quite worth it to watch. The action sequences, in particular, look particularly stunning on the DVD format.
In The Crosshairs starts out as your standard making of featurette about the film, and then turns the corner and becomes an interesting look at the making of the film. Gens major focus on the film was to bring a Hong Kong aspect to the series; the problem was converting a video game into the film. The crew and production staff talks about wanting to remain faithful to the game while trying to put their own stamp on the film. It’s easy to see that everyone involved wanted to make a great action film by how they discuss the film.
Digital Hits focuses on the game itself and its origins. This is the meat of the features, as the people behind the game discuss the game and its relatively unique structure. It’s interesting to hear the game’s creators talk about the game and the film, and how certain themes come out in both.
Instruments of Destruction is a look at the weapons used in the film. This part of the DVD is fascinating, as Olyphant and the weapons crew talk about the various weapons they used and how they strove for realism while using them. They even have a live firing exhibition of each weapon.
Settling the Score is about the film’s score. The composer got a nearly finished copy of the film and went to work, scoring it based on being able to see the film in near-finished form. The composer discusses why and where he used certain pieces of music, discussing that in an action film the score has a much different purpose than in a drama or a comedy.
Deleted Scenes are included, as well as a Gag Reel.
Trailers for Lions for Lambs, The Comebacks, In the Name of the King, The Onion Movie and 24 – Season 6.
Hitman was an inferior movie but has quite a good DVD release. The extras are beyond the usual EPK motif, which makes it more fascinating because everyone is talking about the film with a level of excitement you rarely see. It makes for an interesting experience on DVD, for sure, and is an action film for die hard action fans only.
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20th Century Fox presents Hitman. Directed by Xavier Gens. Starring Timothy Olyphant, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen. Written by Skip Woods. Running time: 94 minutes. Unrated. Released on DVD: March 11, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
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