Movie Review: Hitman – Starring Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko & Robert Knepper

Movie: Hitman (R)
Released: November 21st, 2007
Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.
Ticket Price: $5.00 Early Matinee
Refreshments: Red Vines & Small Popcorn
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko & Robert Knepper
Director: Xavier Gens

Rating: Worth a Rental –

Synopsis: A professional assassin that was born and raised to be one by a secret group. On one of his missions he is setup and when they miss, he vows to find out why. An Interpol agent and the Russian secret police are looking for him. He meets a beautiful, but damaged young woman while searching for who set him up and she begins to stir up unfamiliar emotions.

Review: Hitman is all style over substance. With all the creative people in Hollywood, you would think they would be able to better flesh out a story for a movie based on a video game. But, they just don’t seem able. Yet, Hitman is one of the better ones, but we all know that isn’t saying much.

In the hierarchy of video game based movies, Hitman would rank above Resident Evil and way above terrible adaptations like BloodRayne and Wing Commander. You would probably find it hanging out with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider on that list.

Hitman wants to be one of the Bourne films, but falls short, because it doesn’t have the depth of those films. Really, it feels like you are watching somebody playing the game, instead of watching a movie. There are some cool fight scenes, like the one that takes place in a train car and then under it at the station, but there needs to be more to make a good movie.

For fans of the video game, it looks like they tried to put in plenty of scenes that look right out of the game. I think they even have a scene where two people are playing the game in the background, as Agent 47 comes busting through.

If you are a fan of the game, then you might want to see it on the big screen, but for everyone else, you can wait for the rental.

What did you think of Hitman?