HITMAN

"They gave use numbers"

Bred to be an emotionless assassin and given only a number as a name, Agent 47 (Olyphant) is assigned the most dangerous and almost impossible targets by the Agency. When his latest mark, current Russian president Mikhail Belicoff (Thomsen) is seen to have survived the hit man's bullet through the head, he is sent to clear up the mess by killing the only witness to his attempt, Belicoff's girlfriend Nika (Kurylenko). As he closes in, he realises that he has become the target by his own Agency, but as Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Scott) closes in, he has to discover why they want him and Nika dead.

It can be argued that there has never been a good adaptation of a video game but can 'Hitman' hit the target?

Video game adaptations have never really captured the essence of their subject matter. Some have come close like 'Silent Hill', 'Mortal Kombat' and the 'Tomb Raider' movies but then you have the awful 'Super Mario Bros.', 'Street Fighter', 'Double Dragon' and 'Doom' and that is before you even mention the travesties directed by Uwe Boll ('House of the Dead', 'Alone in the Dark' and every other movie he has ever made). The record is not very good so 'Hitman' has a lot of baggage to kill off. The good news is that 'Hitman' is one of the best game adaptations to come along but that in itself is not a huge compliment.

The Eidos video game is another game that leads itself to the cinematic treatment. The premise of an assassin bred from the DNA of the world most vicious and skilled killers and raised to be the perfect, emotionless soldier that is used as a weapon in the fight against evil is one that makes not just a good game but a good plot for a movie. For the most part director Xavier Gens and his creative team take this premise and run with it to create an action movie that hits more times than it misses but it still misses the target on occasion.

Timothy Olyphant is Agent 47 and the actor, best known for his leading role in the HBO series 'Deadwood' and playing the villain in 'Die Hard 4.0/Live Free or Die Hard', embraces the role and adopts the trademark shaven head and barcode. He definitely has the look, even though he looks a little young and embraces the action of the character with great gusto, it is some of the awful lines in the script that let him down. The rest of the cast don't fair much better in the dialogue depart but there are some decent performances. Dougray Scott plays the good guy for once as Interpol agent Mike Whittaker, 'Prison Break's' Robert Knepper puts on his best Russian accent as Yuri Marklov and Olga Kurylenko spends most of the picture half naked to draw in the target male audience.

With some good action set pieces and a lead character that is slightly different to your typical action hero, 'Hitman' is a good action film in its own right and can be viewed by any fan of the genre, not just people who love the game. It definitely hits the mark more that it misses but it still isn't the perfect video game adaptation that fans have been waiting for.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is good.

BONUS FEATURES

In the Crosshairs (24.20 mins)
Director Xavier Gens, producers Adrian Askarieh and Pierre-Ange Le Pogan, production designer Laurent Bares and stars Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper and Ulrich Thomsen take you behind the scenes of the video game adaptation of 'Hitman'. The group talk about transferring the game to script, the importance of story, casting, the characters and their relationships, recreating the look of the game, the international setting and the group talk about working with the director. This is a good featurette that covers most aspects of the film's production.

Digital Hits (10.37 mins)
Director Xavier Gens, producers Adrian Askarieh, Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott are joined by the people behind the game and game critics talk about the impact of the game, its structure and how it lends itself to movie adaptation.

Instruments of Destruction (14.28 mins)
Weapons coordinator Christopher Maratier and stars Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott talk about the weapons used by Agent 47 and the rest of the characters including Para-ordnance P18.9, Blaser R93 Lasz, M16, FN F2000, Micro Uzi and M240.

Gag Reel (4.54 mins)
Watch Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott and the rest of the cast have fun on the set and make a hash of their lines.

Deleted Scenes
Entitled 'Ovie's pool scene', 'hospital scene', 'a different train platform', 'Udre's death' and 'alternative ending', these deleted or alternate scenes suffer from the lack of an introduction or commentary track to explain why it was removed.

OVERALL

The DVD treatment for 'Hitman' is fine but not as good as could be. While the featurettes are very good however, the lack of a commentary track will come as a disappointment to fans. This is still a decent DVD package however and one that fans should enjoy.

DVD

The Transporter

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2007