Hitman (Unrated Blu-ray) (2007)

"The best movie derived from a violent computer game...a thoroughly entertaining experience.  Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
"Ultimately Hitman is about bullets, blood, and bombs. For die-hard fans of the videogame, there is much to relish...  Karl Rozemeyer, Premiere
"...a lot of bloodshed. And that's a good thing...  Kelley L. Carter, Chicago Tribune
"...one of the best movies ever made from a video game...  Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
"...[Olyphant's] sociopathic elegance is...[driven by a] dry, monotonic, Eastwood-like delivery...  William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Editor's Note Based on the popular Playstation 2 game, HITMAN chronicles the frame-up and retribution-packed odyssey of Number 47 (Timothy Olyphant), a bald assassin raised from birth to be a killer and tattooed with a barcode on the back of his head. There's lots of BOURNE SUPREMACY-style flash-edits and superhuman stunt work as 47 seeks to find out why moderate Russian presidential nominee Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen) was the client for his own assassination, a hit that 47 pulled off perfectly, except for one hitch: the target's still alive. For romantic interest we have Olga Kurylenko as a foxy Russian prostitute sold into slavery by the evil Belicoff. She and 47 wind up on the lam together but they'll never be safe as long as Belicoff is still alive. Meanwhile, Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott) has been tracking 47 for years; he's on the scent and about to close in. Luc Besson was the producer on this, and fans of his TRANSPORTER, THE PROFESSIONAL and LA FEMME NIKITA films will eat it up, as it's got the same narrative arc, same hyper-kinetic shoot-em-up flavor, vividly saturated colors, swooping camerawork, tightly choreographed fights, and lots of blood flying from the copious bullet wounds. Vin Diesel executive produced, and one wonders what stopped his big bald head from filling the screen in the lead, but no matter, as Olyphant does a thorough job, speaking in a measured drawl that recalls, of all people, Clint Eastwood in his DIRTY HARRY days.

	Dougray Scott
	Olga Kurylenko
	Robert Knepper
	Timothy Olyphant
	Antoine Vareille - Editor
	Carlo Rizzo - Editor
	Geoff Zanelli - Original Music By
	Jacques Bufnoir - Production Designer
	Johann George - Art Director
	Laurent Bares - Cinematographer
	Luc Besson - Producer
	Skip Woods - Writer
	Vin Diesel - Executive Producer
	Xavier Gens - Director

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
This may only be my quirky way of thinking, but if you wanted to move through the world as an invisible hit man responsible for more than 100 killings on six continents, would you shave your head to reveal the bar code tattooed on the back of your skull? Yeah, not me, either. But Agent 47 has great success with this disguise in "Hitman," which is a better movie than I thought it might be...The movie, directed by Xavier Gens, was inspired by a best-selling video game and serves as an excellent illustration of my conviction that video games will never become an art form -- never, at least, until they morph into something else or more...The movie is rated R, despite reports that the studio demanded edits to trim down the violence. It has a high body count but very little blood and gore. I wish it had less. It's the people we care about in movies, not how many dead bodies they can stack up. "Hitman" stands right on the threshold between video games and art. On the wrong side of the threshold, but still, give it credit. - Roger Ebert

Variety 5 of 10
"Hitman" is a Eurotrashy vidgame knockoff that misses its target by a mile. Numbingly unthrilling as it lurches from one violent encounter to another, the pic's dark roots in an electronic, non-dramatic medium are plain to see, and unsuspecting gamers lured to theaters will soon wish they were back home participating in the action themselves...French helmer Xavier Gens, whose previous feature was the grungy torture-porn fest item "Frontiere(s)," positively swills in the moldy, drippy, bloodstained Russian ambiance conjured up on Bulgarian locations. But he shows no ability to develop a narrative line or even tension within a scene, an egregious failing in that lives are constantly at stake. Action sequences, particularly one in which 47 alternately takes on four assailants with guns, swords and martial-arts smarts, are often incoherently staged and feature familiar sped-up, herky-jerky cutting mannerisms...Olyphant has good hair, so it's a shame he must do without it here as a man designed to be an automaton. He's also an actor capable of portraying subtle ambiguities and thought, which suggests he ought to branch out to play something other than baddies, as he also did in "Live Free or Die Hard." - Todd McCarthy