Hitman

Even after reading some of the reviews calling it worse than any Uwe Boll adaptation I still braved the cold last night and went to see Hitman. Given that my high expectations had been lowered quite substantially I have to admit that I really enjoyed the film.

It wasn't high art, but taken for what it was it doesn't disappoint. There are a number of fantastic shoot outs, one classic Mexican stand off and enough bloodshed and gun porn to satisfy most. Throw in some of the worst overdubbing since Die Hard 4.0 and the group of 20+ year olds behind me who seemed to get excited every time they saw any nudity and it was a most enjoyable trip to the cinema.

senordingdong

I thought it looked very good.
I've never played the games but all of that withstanding I think the story carries alot of potential for a movie.

astraboy

Saw it last night too. Got to say it was enjoyable, plenty of action. Certainly not the most intellectually challenging film I've ever seen, but if you want a decent popcorn shoot em up assisin film it is a good watch. Plent of gun porn and some ridiclous Audi product placement, but since I lke Audis thats ok!:)

Shryke

My opinion of what the film would be like really wasn't that high but I have to say I thought it was good. The acting was solid, the script wasn't the worst. They didn't play up the relationship especially, plenty of action. Just solid fun.

TerrorFirmer

The plot was terrible, and that word doesn't do it justice.

But the film was quite OK. Not half as cliched as I thought it would be. Some nice action scenes. Wouldn't go so far as to call it a great film, but definitely a watchable one.

Bob in Belfast

Seen it last night, it's not terrible but it wasn't great either.I'm a big fan of the computer game that's the only reason i went to see it.
It was as good as i had expected.

I went to see this with pretty low expectations and was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it. Parts of it are silly,but it's a decent action film. It's not the best hitman film they could have made but it's worth a look for any fans of the game.

Lawless_Samurai

Yeah saw it last night and I gotta say I enjoyed it Even like some of the little throw backs it did to the games

Vegeta

Thought it was average to poor to be honest, could have been a lot better I feel. Some deadly scenes but crap plot.

Haven't played all the Hitman games but have played a few and 47 with a love interest just didn't seem right.

Audi and Blaser product placement was crazy

BlitzKrieg

it was a load of crap


Even as a braindead action flick it was horrible, the action just wasnt action, it was boring and looked crap for the most part.

Kaos Theory

Saw this last night and was just glad they didn't screw it up completely, being a big fan of the games I was eager to see this from the second I heard it was being made. That said, I kept my expectations low incase it was just another Hollywood 'Quick Cash In' film but was pleasantly surprised by it.

As said before, its not a great film but it is good, I like the little tributes to the games, especially the little yellow duck! I think Olyphant (sp?) did the 47 character justice and I'm especially glad they didn't turn it into a freaking love story!

My only beef is the opening sequence of the kids being trained/holding their breath under water/being schooled etc, was it just me or was that footage taken directly from the TV series Dark Angel? Its been awhile since I've seen it but I'd swear it was!?

Kaos

Lawless_Samurai

Yeah I thought that too about the opening scene!!! It really did look like they took the actual footage from Dark Angel and slapped it in there!!! What the hell why would they do that??? Anyone shine a light on this....

ixoy

Kaos Theory wrote: »

My only beef is the opening sequence of the kids being trained/holding their breath under water/being schooled etc, was it just me or was that footage taken directly from the TV series Dark Angel? Its been awhile since I've seen it but I'd swear it was!?

It's not just you according to IMDB:

Features
"Dark Angel" (2000)
- Opening montage scenes are cut from episodes of the children in the training camp. The show and Hitman have the same bald characters with bar code tattoos

Wacker

I went to see it on Thursday. I actually fell asleep and missed the last twenty minutes or so! That isn't to say that I was bored to sleep; I was just tired and those seats are comfy.

What I saw was very uninspiring. It didn't seem to be terrible, but it was not enggaging.
One major problem: the action scenes were way overly stylised and did not seem in any way believable. Action films need to get this right. Take the Matrix, for instance. If I were as skilled as Neo, I imagine I would fight like he does in the film - he was doing sensational stuff, but I believe he would do it if he could. Hitman (and many other films too, like Equilibrium) was different - it looked like the choreographers designed the fights to look as cool as possible without any interest in realism.

Am I alone here?

TerrorFirmer

Wacker wrote: »

Am I alone here?

it's called suspension of belief

TheDoc

its based on a videogame, god people are getting so picky.

its a step out of realism.... someone so skilled and trained they can do this stuff, you could say the same bout rambo and commando and everything like that.

its a movie, its fiction, lighten up :P

and i dont understand people talking about a love story, there isnt one, she wants to get 47 into a 69...but he CLEARLY has none of it, as CLEARLY shown in the bedroom scene :P
god that is one of the funniest bits of cinema ive ever seen

Wacker

HavoK wrote: »

it's called suspension of belief

I think you missed my point! I have no problem with (e.g.) Neo dodging bullets or whatever. The suspension of disbelief is not a problem. I would have a problem with Neo dodging bullets in a way overly stylised manner that just looks silly.

genericgoon

As an action flick it was meh. Tbh the character was a good bit off the game character. He just wasnt cold enough.

jameshayes

I went last night, I tought it was really good. Dont expect much, it's kind of a mix between Dark Angel, Bourne Identity and a james bond type film.

That girl - Olga whats her name - big eyes, big lips, ya know the one - WOOOOOOO she is hot hot hot

kaimera

and i dont understand people talking about a love story, there isnt one, she wants to get 47 into a 69...but he CLEARLY has none of it, as CLEARLY shown in the bedroom scene :P

He must have taped it to his leg unless he has incredible will power :v:

oxygen_old

Yea, I havent seen the movie yet, but from what Ive heard they've really dropped the ball with this one. Coulda been great.

Im always curious how the cast bald people. Like there are the people who look cool bald, like Vin Diesel, or Patrick Stewart, or come to mention it, Captain Picards clone (son?) in ST:TNG:Nemesis. Acutally that last guy wouldhave been cool for this.

But then there are the people who look cool originally, but when you shave their heads they just dont have the facial definition to make bald look cool. Examples are, Lex from Superman the early years (tho he is somewhat cool) and this hitman actor TO fella.

Kaos Theory

kaimera wrote: »

He must have taped it to his leg unless he has incredible will power :v:

Well I know if it was me and I'd taped mine to my leg, I'd probably have kicked her in the back of the head!

Kaos

Vegeta

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

and i dont understand people talking about a love story, there isnt one, she wants to get 47 into a 69...but he CLEARLY has none of it, as CLEARLY shown in the bedroom scene :P
god that is one of the funniest bits of cinema ive ever seen

Are you crazy or blind? There CLEARLY was an emotional relationship between the two. It might have been unrequited but it was still there. Just because the character 47 didn't bone her does not mean there was no "love story"

Lawless_Samurai

Eh are you a man? Unrequited love... What is that!?! He didn't bang her ergo there wasn't a love story! :D

Vegeta

Lawless_Samurai wrote: »

He didn't bang her ergo there wasn't a love story! :D

lol

Potential-Monke

There was a love story, but it's just a fooked up one, instead of banging her, he's going to kill everyone that goes near her! WAs a mediocre film. Not as good a port as Silent Hill, but alot better than, oh, say, every other game to film port.

Fysh

Wow, what a disappointing film. The plot, such as it was, wasn't particularly bad - however, almost everything else was.

The "emotional awakening" of 47 (for want of a better phrase) was handled in a horrendously clumsy way, and Nika's character was inconsistent - one minute she's a traumatised victim of abuse forced into prostitution, the next thing she's confiding in a guy she's known for five minutes and trying to jump his bones. For that matter, most of the female characters who got anything beyond a couple of seconds of screen time seemed to be presented as whores, to the extent that it felt like Frank Miller wrote this.

As for the action sequences, they weren't quite good enough to make me ignore the rest of the film's flaws. For example, the Mexican standoff that becomes a knife fight - while the whole "Look, I've got two swords stashed up the back of my suit jacket" thing was probably a tongue-in-cheek joke about the games and the way you can have 15 guns about your person without showing any disruption to the line of the suit, the very notion of the Organisation encouraging or allowing such a ritualised and machismo-based method for resolving disputes seemed daft. I got the feeling that the writer had scripted out the skeleton of that scene and crowbarred it into this script because he thought it would look cool. The camera-work was quite good for the most part, but sometimes got in the way of the scenes themselves (eg

the final fight in the tower room where 47 fights the monk, and ends up curb-stomping him

).

On the plus side, Olyphant was actually quite good as Agent 47 when he was in pure "killing machine" mode. Almost everyone else was at best functional, and usually less so - in fact, most of the characters were entirely 2-dimensional. From the corrupt Russians, to the mad bad drug & gun dealer, through to the faintly shady CIA agent or the dogged Interpol agent. None of them fleshed out in any way beyond the bare necessity of the plot.

I'd hoped this might be an entertaining piece of fluff in the vein of Crank, but it had far, far too many flaws to be entertaining. Bonus points went to the cinema where I saw it, which played an absolutely awful anti-piracy ad before the film (suggesting that movie piracy was something that only lonely teenage boys who play with themselves too much do).

senordingdong

I was thoroughly impressed with it.
Olyphant was brilliant and the I thought they guy who played the Interpol agent was pretty good too I thought.
I thought the plot was well written and was very much above the standard we're used to for a video game port.

My only gripes were that Nika was inconsistant, 47's emotional awakening was poorly dealt with to the extent that it could have been left out and he could have killed her instead. Also, I thought the Mexican stand off scene with the swords was silly and should have been done differently. I also think the bit about the hit being put out on 47 was poorly dealt with.

But all that aside, the pros far outweighed the cons and this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie.
Definatly worth seeing.

Conor108

Sorry I'm late gentlemen, I've just seen it. It was OK in my opinion, not great I'd say 6/10. For the reasons mentioned above.

I was with a bunch of poeple who claimed it was "Excellent!" and the best movie they've seen in a while. One guy even claimed it was the best spy movie he's ever seen and I was like "NOOO!! BOURNE!! BOND!!"

JohnK

I went in expecting it to be the pinnacle of utter shite but came away pleasantly surprised. Certainly not the best film of the year but better than some of the crap that comes out. Come to think of it, after seeing Gabriel it was almost Oscar worthy.

Shryke

Conor108 wrote: »

Sorry I'm late gentlemen, I've just seen it. It was OK in my opinion, not great I'd say 6/10. For the reasons mentioned above.

I was with a bunch of poeple who claimed it was "Excellent!" and the best movie they've seen in a while. One guy even claimed it was the best spy movie he's ever seen and I was like "NOOO!! BOURNE!! BOND!!"

Spy movie? Uh... I hope I'm not friends with your friends!

Fysh

senordingdong wrote: »

I thought the plot was well written and was very much above the standard we're used to for a video game port.

I agree with this, but it serves to highlight the bigger problem with game ports - they tend to have abysmal storylines, quite often as a result of ignoring the original game's storyline (Mortal Kombat? Alone In The Dark? In fact, anything Uwe Boll's ever been allowed near?).

Hitman's plot was above average for game-to-film conversions, but only because the standard for game-to-film conversions is so bad that above average still doesn't necessarily imply anything close to "good".

senordingdong

Fysh wrote: »

I agree with this, but it serves to highlight the bigger problem with game ports - they tend to have abysmal storylines, quite often as a result of ignoring the original game's storyline (Mortal Kombat? Alone In The Dark? In fact, anything Uwe Boll's ever been allowed near?).

Hitman's plot was above average for game-to-film conversions, but only because the standard for game-to-film conversions is so bad that above average still doesn't necessarily imply anything close to "good".

An interesting arguement, but while I wouldn't try to compare the plot to the likes of....'Heat' for example, I was still very satisfied with it.

Basically, I don't think it was good just because we are used to ****e. I think it was good because it was good.

Sherifu

Saw it this evening, entertaining flick. Nothing too taxing for the mind but I liked the look and action in the film. Bit disappointing he didn't tap the girl though.

rkm

rkm wrote: »

Bit disappointing he didn't tap the girl though.

That would have been very un-47 like.

Sherifu

Maybe Bond'll do her.

the_syco

Loved the bit where

he smashed through the window, and the two lads were playing Hitman

. Was a nice touch.

Sherifu

Aye, nice touch. I smiled at that bit.

constitutionus

finally got around to seeing this and was pleasently surprised at how good it was. all the buzz on it was negative in the press so maybe i wasnt expecting much but over all its an enjoyable bit of popcorn and considering how fecking depressing the current film industly output is thats to be thanked for.

stylish and fun with a leading man that makes a mass murderer likable. can do worse than that.

Fysh

On the subject of videogame-to-film adaptations, I just found this.

I have the horrible feeling that King Of Fighters is going to end up as the next Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter live-action atrocity. Devil May Cry could be good, though. But, all the same, I don't see any of the films mentioned being anywhere good enough to break the trend of the films being sub-par when considered as just films, rather than game adaptations.

Anyway. Back to Hitman - I have to admit I grinned at the scene with the kids playing the game; normally those little knowing jokes annoy me, but that one was quite nicely done.

Creature

Fysh wrote: »

On the subject of videogame-to-film adaptations, I just found this.

I have the horrible feeling that King Of Fighters is going to end up as the next Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter live-action atrocity. Devil May Cry could be good, though. But, all the same, I don't see any of the films mentioned being anywhere good enough to break the trend of the films being sub-par when considered as just films, rather than game adaptations.

Anyway. Back to Hitman - I have to admit I grinned at the scene with the kids playing the game; normally those little knowing jokes annoy me, but that one was quite nicely done.

Onimusha could be quite good if they manage to get Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jean Reno a la Onimusha 3. I have no doubt that a King of fighters film will be horrible though.