This is how the Movie Review Squad works: one of us fill in an application form 118(A) to propose a movie title and if none of us veto or veto the veto, we will go ahead with the booking – with exceptions of course. Somehow my fetish for horror flicks is always vetoed by TK and Cynthia, and so is my fetish for Asian movies. But that is another story.
On Saturday morning, I passed TK’s 118(A) form to Cynthia and she OK’d it. So I asked TK to go ahead with the booking. I knew “Hitman” is a video game adaptation so as a gaming geek, I certainly have no issue with it. TK picked it and God knows why he picked it. Cynthia thought the leading actor was someone else. So what was the outcome?
One dude behind us was saying stuffs like, “Man, should have watched Enchanted instead”. Another dude replied, “That is a one-star movie, that’s why!” We certainly had no idea that it is a one-star movie. Otherwise I would have vetoed it. Surprisingly, all three of us seemed entertained by “Hitman”. It is a brainless show, I am warning you. Read on if you have an open mind.
The casting is pretty international: Americans, Scottish, Danish, and Ukrainian. I thought the Ukrainian actress, Olga Kurylenko, is pretty hot for her role but Cynthia did not think so. Vin Diesel, who is the executive producer, was supposed to play the role of the lead actor Agent 47. I wonder why he stepped down and here comes the Hawaiian origin Timothy Olyphant to take on the role. I also enjoy the Scottish actor Dougray Scott’s performance whom some of you may have recognised him from the TV series Desperate Housewives. The acting is acceptably decent – judging from the computer gaming perspective. The storyline is simple, nothing fancy. It started off like the TV series Dark Angel whereby orphans are being taken in and trained as assassins.
The question is: both Agent 47 (Mike Whittier) and Mike Whittier from the Interpol (Dougray Scott) have killed people in the course of their work, what makes the good guy has the right to take life? That was the beginning of the movie and then the storyline rewound all the way to couple of months ago. The story is not that deep, trust me. But it is enjoyable. “Hitman”, I think, has faithfully followed the gaming culture. For example, at one point, all the hitmen dropped their guns and have decided to fight with their swords. Cynthia was screaming like, “How can?!” But in a computer gaming environment, it is very common to switch weapons. I told her that she is fortunate not to see a chainsaw … ha ha ha (yep, it is a legitimate weapon commonly used). And there is one particular scene I love. Agent 47 was lying on the bed and the sexy Nika Boronina (Olga Kurylenko) was on top of him with a red dress falling off her shoulders and no panties. There was no sex (close enough). It was classic. In a gaming culture, there may be lots of blood violence with pieces of corpse flying everywhere, it is never meant to be pornographic (except for a few). I love it. Not to forget to mention the music effect. It is so computer gaming, if you know what I mean. The music always intensifies when something is going to happen.
If you are in for some brainless entertainment or if you are a gaming enthusiast, “Hitman” may be for you. I personally don’t think “Hitman” deserves such a poor rating. I know there are quite a few netizens who agree with me.