“Hitman” (20th Century Fox)
Not A Hit
“Hitman” is a movie based on a video game and maybe that explains why it is completely incomprehensible to any viewer who is not familiar with the game. To the non-video game player this movie comes across as a series of scenes about assassination and death. Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott star in the movie but they seem as lost about the plot and the characters as the audience.
Olyphant plays Agent 47, a man who was raised from childhood to be a killer. He sports a shaved head with a bar code tattooed on to the back of his head. The why of this is never explained. At the start of the film he confronts an Interpol agent by the name of Mike Whittier (Scott). He holds him at gunpoint and wants to know if good people kill people and why. Then the movie flashes back to an earlier time.
Agent 47 is a hired killing machine who accepts a contract to assassinate a Russian dignitary. When he does the act there is a witness to the hit, and 47 is told to kill her. Instead when 47 meets Nike Boronina (Olga Kurylenko) he abducts her. They begin a strange love/hate/buddy/pal relationship.
As stated none of this makes any sense, especially when the head of the KGB, Yuri Marklov (Robert Kneppler) gets involved. It does however add to the minute enjoyment of the movie to have “Teabag” from “Prison Break” in the cast.
Olyphant plays his role like a wooden stick. He showed much more depth and personality as the villain in “Live Free Or Die Hard.” Scott is equally wooden. Maybe playing opposite Teri Hatcher on “Desperate Housewives” robbed him of what little acting talent he had. Kurylenko is supposed to be smoldering and sexy but she never reaches that stage. She just poses a lot and looks pouty.
The movie is rated R for profanity, nudity and violence.
“Hitman” may be a great video game but it certainly doesn’t transfer any of its charm or excitement to the movie screen. Death and destruction without any semblance of a plot linking it all together make for a boring movie experience.
I scored “Hitman” a missed 3 out of 10.
