While "Hitman" is a definite step above aI have something good to say about "Hitman," the latest video game inspired action flick. Ready?

"Hitman" is NOT directed by Uwe Boll.

Rumor has it that Boll tried, but failed, to obtain the rights to "Hitman" largely due to his recent cinematic failures like "Bloodrayne" and "Alone in the Dark."

 Boll directed video game flick, it's not a huge step.

Only on the strength of Timothy Olyphant's unintentionally funny performance is "Hitman" a mildly tolerable, yet wholly predictable action flick as directed by French filmmaker Xavier Gens.

Olyphant stars as Agent 47, a life-bred hitman who appears to have been set up for a "miss" and, suddenly, finds himself on the run with the victim's girlfriend (Olga Kurylenko).

"Hitman" was made in Russia and, other than Olyphant, seems to be comprised of mostly European B-listers with limited English skills and even more limited acting skills. Fortunately, acting is of little to no use in a film such as "Hitman," which basically requires its performances to look good, busy and deadly.

While the scenes in "Hitman" are appropriately bloody, they lack considerably when it comes to anything resembling sustainable action or suspense.

Olyphant himself very nearly keeps "Hitman" at an interesting level, despite a mind-numbing musical score, lame plot, boring action sequences and wooden performances from nearly everyone else in the film.

Gens, despite being unable to manage the action sequences, does manage to keep the film moving along at quite the nice clip and, unlike the aforementiond Boll, avoids laughable special effects and keeps the gore at a high enough level to please most hardcore fans of action/gore.

While "Hitman" doesn't come close to garnering a recommendation from this critic, fans of video-game inspired action flicks are likely to find enough moments of action, gore and gunfighting to make the whole thing worth watching once it hits home video.

 

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic