Thursday, November 22, 2007

Hitman


It was driving me crazy. Timothy Olyphant, who plays Agent 47 in the movie based on the video game, Hitman; I had seen him in something else but could not remember what it was. I wracked my brains the whole movie, but could not pull it out. Thank goodness for the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Timothy Olyphant played one of the main characters in the HBO original series Deadwood. He played the part of Seth Bullock.

So now that that’s out of the way, what did I think of the movie? Well I never played the game Hitman, but its premise sounded interesting. A group of young orphans raised by a super secret organization to be world class assassins that travel all over the world taking out warlords, weapons dealers, and political figures, all for a price.

The assassins aren’t given names as they are raised, just a number and a bar code tattooed on the back of their bald heads. (I wonder if they will ring up as a can of vegetable soup at the market?)

The movie doesn’t go into detail about their upbringing other than a series of flashes of children in class, learning martial arts, and of course wielding guns. It starts out easy enough with Agent 47 receiving jobs via his talking laptop and carrying out assassinations. Then he gets a job to wipe out the Russian president. Everything goes well, but suddenly there are reports that the president survived the assassination with just a scratch. We know he was really killed so their must be a double. At this point the plot becomes increasingly convoluted and confusing with a series of twists that I just could not follow. People come out of the woodwork to kill Agent 47, including an Interpol agent who has been tracking him for three years, to the Russian FSB, and several of his fellow assassins from his own organization.

He also hooks up with a female named Nika, who seems to know about the cover up of the president’s death. They develop a love-hate relationship which is also confusing because he spurns her advances. It never says, but I suppose it has something to do with “a warrior distracted is a dead warrior.”


Despite the confusing plot, I found myself enjoying the film none-the-less. It of course has the obligatory assassinations, and plenty of fighting and shooting. I also like the character of Agent 47 even if it was a bit two dimensional. Timothy Oylphant (what a last name!) always brings a certain intensity to the roles he plays, and that comes across very well on screen. So if you are a fan of the game HITMAN, a Timothy Olyphant fan, and don’t mind a mind-boggling plot, then pack your heat and head to the theater to check out Hitman!

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