has anyone seen this... is it good?
HITMAN (2007) - **1/2Wouldn't
you think an an operative of a bald guy walking around an airport with a barcode slapped on the back of his head seem strange?
There are so much in HITMAN that I just don't get. If three guys from the same organization are ordered to eliminate another, why would they agree with the title character to duel with blades instead of bullets? Should it really matter to these drone-assassins? This aint a ninja picture or Ring Of Honor wrestling.
Hell, I didn't even understand why they were there in the first place. I had to ask my old man who went with me to the screening, and he explained how the same villain had contracted them to murder the hero, the baddie's original hired gun. How he understood this, I'll never know.
Yet as the story, characters, and logic is thrown to the wayside (more like the dirty gutter) in favor of the action, HITMAN is still the best video game-film adaptation yet. That's right, you fanboys can quit being in denial about the MORTAL KOMBAT and RESIDENT EVIL movies sucking hard.
Now I never played the popular HITMAN videogames, nor do I care if the movie is faithful or not. Considering that films based on video games always suck, I was surprised to find that I actually sorta enjoyed HITMAN.
Mind you, I'm not saying that HITMAN is good, but its serviceable in a B-action movie sort of way. Maybe in a few years, Hollywood will produce a quality adaptation.
If anything, HITMAN reminds me of really Andrew Davis' CHAIN REACTION. Both had nonsensical stories with events that occured simply to move the picture along, and yet was still was rendered watchable by the action scenes. Yet being compared to a Keanu Reeves dud, is that really a compliment?
It also reminds me of Doug Liman's THE BOURNE IDENTITY, except if that picture was re-shot by jobbers as a direct-to-DVD action flick that somehow got released into theatres. Certainly the whole human angle of HITMAN is about this assassin-monk transforming from a mindless slave to that of an independent-thinking human being, and I just don't buy it.
Why would the whore character make him change from what he was disciplined to be? That said, at least the filmmakers didn't make him screw her, which considering his character perfect sense, even if she did have very nice tits.
I did notice quite late in the game that the Interpol cop character was played by Dougray Scott. He almost played James Bond, but both Brosnan and Craig beat him to the martini. He would have played Wolverine in X-MEN, except MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 went overschedule and he lost the part to Hugh Jackman, who became a movie star.
He got screwed from many big roles by fate and is now relegated to working in television or movies like HITMAN. Then again, from what I've seen of his work, his career probably did deserve to get whacked by Agent 47.
