The Film
I'm always a little skeptical when I see the phrase "based on the popular video game." Perhaps it comes from having sat through the movie versions of Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Doom. I'm sure they were fun games but they made for some really horrible films. So my expectations for Hitman were fairly low. And I'm happy to say they were exceeded.
Timothy Olyphant (Live Free or Die Hard), who always reminds me of a slightly more dangerous version of Ryan Seacrest, stars as the titular character, aka Agent 47. A clone raised by renegade monks to rid the world of evil (no really), Agent 47 is now a freelance assassin taking down bad guys for the highest bidder. When a job goes wrong (or does it?) and the agent fails to take out an assigned target, the hunter becomes the hunted, many battles ensue and Agent 47 embarks on his own mission - to take down the client who set him up and rescue the damsel in distress while he's at it.
Although it all sounds rather trite, a strong performance by Olyphant, exciting action and fight sequences as well as some interesting supporting characters -- notably Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott) -- make this a fairly enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. Add in an eastern European hottie (Olga Kurylenko), who enjoys being scantily clad, and we have a winner! Its first 20 minutes, when we see Agent 47 in action doing what he does best (assassinating bad guys), is stronger than the entire remainder of the film, but it never completely loses steam. This is certainly not high art, but it's entertaining and sometimes that's OK.
The Picture
The 1080p transfer, encoded in AVC at an average bitrate of 16 MBPS (megabytes per second) is pretty high quality, detailed and colorful but with some shifting contrast issues here and there as well as a slight lack of detail in the darker shadowy scenes. There is also some noise visible in the print, which is unexpected considering the film was shot just last year and hasn't had time to degrade. I'd expect these are artifacts in the transfer, caused by having only a single layer (25GB) of disc to work with. The film is letterboxed in the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The Sound
Fox takes advantage of the encoding savings of DTS-HD Master Audio, presenting a lossless (48 KHz, 24 Bit) soundtrack that captures the music, dialog and surround effects well using significantly less disc space and bandwidth than a comparable PCM soundtrack. I never found myself rewinding or turning on the subtitles to make out dialog, and dynamic explosive effects such as gunshots and explosions had their proper sonic heft. The music is one of the strong parts of the film, with Geoff Zanelli's James Bond-like soundtrack imbuing the movie with more of a spy thriller feel than just a mindless action adventure.
The Extras
The extras here are fairly robust: the usual documentaries provide insight on the making of the film and its transition from its computer game roots, a not-so-funny gag reel, some deleted scenes (including an alternate ending) and some informative clips on the weapons used in the film. Also included in the case is a bonus DVD-ROM which features a portable digital version of the film so you can watch it in iTunes on your PC or on an iPod. I didn't test this out, but its inclusion is a welcome sight. If I buy a movie, I'd like to think it's up to me to decide where and how to watch it, without fear of being labeled a video pirate.
Final Thoughts
I didn't expect much from Hitman, given its video game roots, but I was pleasantly surprised. Fans of the game will probably enjoy the movie even more as they get to see their favorite anti-hero represented in a live action film (and did I mention the cool weapons and scantily clad women?). There's a scene early on that will hold particular appeal to fans. As Agent 47 crashes through a hotel window, a couple on their couch stares at him incredulously then return their eyes to the screen, where they are playing the "Hitman" computer game. Fans will probably spot many other tributes to the game. A few shots in the film seem like they may have been staged as an homage to scenes in the game itself. But even a non-fan like me can find a few things to like about the movie. Certainly worth a rental.
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