Reviewed by Johnny McNair 

Twentieth Century Fox – 94 minutes – 2007 – Unrated – 1080p Widescreen 2.35:1 – DTS HD 5.1 Lossless Audio – Digital Copy

Movies based on videogames are still fighting for credibility in Hollywood, mainly because there have been so many bad ones so far, and no bankable director or producer has made one yet. Halo and Prince of Persia may be a step in the right direction because of the names attached, but until we all see a final product, that’s just wishful thinking. Hitman, based on the Eidos videogame series is the latest attempt to adapt game-to-screen. Though Hitman is an ambitious attempt, there’s still a long way to go before any walls dividing the two mediums comes crashing down.

THE MOVIE

Hitman stars Timothy Olyphant, (who recently played the bad guy in Live Free or Die Hard) as Agent 47, an assassin who works for the mysterious group called the Organization. In the opening sequence you see a group of young orphaned boys who have there heads shaven and a barcode branded on the back of it; who are then trained in all forms of military skills both with weapons as well as hand-to-hand combat for the sole purpose of being killing machines. As adults these bald agents roam the globe taking deadly assignments to kill political figures, terrorists, and anyone else a client will pay to have eliminated.

Agent 47 is sent on a mission to terminate the President of Russia, but after believing he’s killed his target, the President turns up on TV saying that he survived the assassination attempt and was only wounded. Knowing that this can’t be possible and realizing that he’s been double-crossed, Agent 47 teams up with the Russian President’s call girl mistress, played by Olga Kurylenko, to find out who’s set him up. As Agent 47 attempts to solve the mystery, an Interpol lawman, played by Dougray Scott, is trying to track him down and capture him for previous incidents. Caught in a web of betrayal and imminent death, Agent 47 is in the center of everyone’s gunsight and must find a way to stay alive.

Sounds like the recipe for a kick ass action flick, but for various reasons the film falls face down on so many levels. The major problem is the casting; Timothy Olyphant was not the right person for this role. When the film was announced, Vin Diesel was set to play Agent 47, and most would agree that he has the charisma to play this type of character. Olyphant is just too flat, mumbling his lines, and when the action breaks out his movements are too stiff. If Vin Diesel couldn’t do it, didn’t anyone at Fox think about calling Jason Statham who already worked for them with the successful Transporter movies? The second issue is the situation with the director Xavier Gens, whose version of the film was allegedly re-edited with scenes re-shot by another director, was removed from the final cut altogether.

This shows that Fox was trying desperately to salvage this movie, but you can’t fix something that started off with bad materials from the start. Hitman is not a terrible film; it’s just mediocre and stuck in the 80’s, playing like a straight-to-video flick that can’t hold it’s ground against the bigger guns in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It tries to play off of other action films like the Jason Bourne and James Bond movies, but it never quite finds its footing and keeps falling down.

This Blu-ray is labeled as Unrated (Note: not Director’s Cut), so certain violent scenes that were edited down for the theatrical run is now shown in all its bloody glory. Does this make for a better film? Not at all, but in terms of mindless entertainment on a Saturday night for coach potato action fans, Hitman is worth a look. Probably the best scene in the film is when Agent 47 escapes an attempt on his life and crashes through a window to find himself in a room where two kids are playing the Hitman videogame. It’s the one moment where the film doesn’t take itself too seriously and it works.

VIDEO

Like most new movies, Hitman looks great in high-definition, presented in 2.35:1 1080p widescreen you can see everything clearly, right down to the gleam on Agent 47’s gun. But it does look flat in places, but that’s mainly due to the director’s choice of shooting certain scenes. Obviously the outdoor daylight scenes shine, but during night scenes you do get hits of grain; not a lot but enough to notice it. The skin tones look great, showing you every detail on Olga Kurylenko’s body, and lets be honest, in a movie this mediocre seeing her walk around topless in high-def is a selling point.

SOUND

Sound is very important for an action movie, and Hitman delivers the goods featuring a DTS-HD Lossless 5.1 soundtrack that will rock your speakers when things heat up. There’s a lot of gunfire in Hitman, and careful attention was placed into making every gun have it’s own special sound, so that during a gunfight you’ll know who’s firing what. Dialogue sounds crisps, even though we’re not talking five-star acting here, the tracks are mixed nicely separated blending speech with the explosive audio effects. And just for fun, try watching the film with the French dubbed dialogue mix; somehow it makes this film work better when you see it as a foreign film with English subtitles.

EXTRAS

The best perk about Blu-ray versus a regular DVD is having extras seen in high-definition, and mainly all of Hitman’s supplements are displayed in HD, except the gag reel, but who cares about seeing bloopers in HD anyway?

There is no director’s audio commentary featured, and being that Xavier Gens was (allegedly) fired from the film, why would he come back to talk about that?

“In The Crosshairs” is a half hour featurette that goes into the making of Hitman, with interviews with actors Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott and Olga Kurylenko, as well as director Xavier Gens. This is your typical making of fluff that we’ve all seen before, and it won’t change your view of the movie itself.

“Digital Hits is” one of the best features, but barely ten minutes it should have been longer because it looks into the origin of the videogame that inspired the movie. This includes interviews with the game developers and other names in the world of gaming. More could have gone into this, but it seems to have been quickly slapped together as an afterthought rather than a main attraction. Anyone who is a fan of the Hitman games will enjoy this.

“Settling the Score” is a five-minute segment that follows the composer of the film, Geoff Zanlli, as he adds his musical touch to Hitman. If you liked the music in this film you’ll get something out of this, if you didn’t care for the music you can skip this all together.

“Instruments of Destruction” is a compilation of segments totaling fifteen minutes that shows all the guns and other lethal gizmos used in the movie. If you a gun freak, this is a pretty cool segment that goes into why each gun was chosen for Agent 47 and the rest of the cast.

There are also five deleted scenes, mainly extended versions of what was in the theatrical release. Plus, the film’s original ending is featured, giving the film a different outcome than what was seen. Not to give anything away, you should view it and judge for yourself if this is the way the film should have ended.

If you’re a fan of seeing trailers in HD, included are other films from Fox Blu-ray: Aliens vs. Predator Requiem, Predator, Live Free or Die Hard, and obviously Hitman.

Hitman comes with two discs; one is the Blu-ray with the movie and all the extras, and the other is a regular DVD that contains a Digital Copy of the film. This is the first time this feature has ever been offered on Blu-ray and lets hope that Fox and other studios jump on board to continue this trend. The Digital Copy is a standard definition version of the movie that can be downloaded for mobile devices such the ipod/iphone, so you can watch the film on the go. The way it works is once you insert the disc into your computer, double-click the supported icon, and then via iTunes you enter the 16-digit code provided and the 1.07GB file is downloaded directly to you movie folder. There you can watch the film on your laptop or transfer it to your ipod/iphone or other mobile gadget. It’s a good idea that may cut down the movie pirating issues, because it makes it so easy. Like a song on itunes, the digital copy can only be shared on up to five authorized computers (Those of you who are Zune owners will feel left out, because as of this writing the Digital Copy is not accessible on the device yet, but hopefully this will change.)

BOTTOM LINE

Hitman will unfortunately end up in the pile of other mediocre and terrible ‘game-turned-movie’ list as Doom, Alone in the Dark, Wing Commander, and Street Fighter; but to be fair it is a better film than anything Uwe Boll has directed. If you’re seeing it home for the first time rather than in the theater it may offer a better experience because of its straight-to-video style. It’s a decent Blu-ray, with it’s prize feature being the Digital Copy, but you may want to rent the film first to see if it’s worth the purchase.

SCORES (Out of 5):

The Movie: 3.0

Video: 3.5

Sound: 3.0

Extras: 3.5

Bottom Line: 3.0