Film Review: ‘Hitman’ offed by plot holes and shoddy acting
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“Hitman,” based on a videogame, is tainted with bad acting, poorly-written dialog and a confusing plotline that wastes its potential. It came off as a watered-down version of “The Bourne Identity” that only saves itself from being a complete failure with relentless killing in action-packed scenes.
Timothy Olyphant (“Bill”) is miscast as Agent 47, an elite, cold-blooded assassin who never misses his target. Agent 47 is contracted to kill the new Russian President Mikhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen, “Fremkaldt”). The hit is botched when Agent 47 plants a bullet in his double’s head. After the job, Agent 47 suddenly becomes the target of his fellow bald-headed assassins. The rest of the plot is a predictable revenge angle, with Agent 47 dragging the boss’ hooker girlfriend Nika (Olga Kurylenko, “Le Serpent”) along for the ride.Neither Olyphant’s nice-guy voice nor pretty-boy face has the right look for the part. The part called for someone a little bit older and more sinister-looking. Olyphant just sounds bored and a bit robot-like reciting his lines.
Instead of honing his recitation skills, Olyphant should have looked in the mirror and practiced his piercing killer glare. He tried to pull off a deadly aura that just translated as strange.
But if Olyphant had a script that wasn’t filled with clichés and cheesy lines, he might have been able to portray the deadly assassin a little better.
The plot had holes, leaving the audience to question the characters’ motives. An unenthused attempt to explain Agent 47’s background in the beginning credits was delivered in flashes of memories in a matter of seconds, which was too short to grasp his motivation as an assassin. It seemed as if the director focused more on the action scenes than trying to build a story in the remainder of the movie.
Teenage boys may appreciate Kurylenko’s role as the tempting hooker who likes to tease a certain part of the male anatomy by getting naked whenever she gets the chance. Sexual tension is thrown in almost as if to say that if the audience gets bored with fighting scenes, at least they can have their minds stimulated in other ways. However, the forced relationship between Agent 47 and Nika just doesn’t have the chemistry to carry out the scene.
This is, regrettably, a time-waster suitable only for mentally unwinding after a long, hard day.
‘Hitman’
Release Date: Nov. 21
Director: Xaiver Gens
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Olga Kurylenko, Ulrich Tomsen
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity
Grade: C
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on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Arts & Entertainment, Film Reviews.
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