Hitman

Un excellent film d’aventure et d’action qui n’est pas fondé sur des clichés et, surtout, dont le personnage central ne succombe pas au charme du personnage féminin – son truc, c’est plutôt de lui faire une injection dans la nuque ! :-) (23/04/2008)

The nightmare of all fans of the video game, promised by the trailers, turned out to be a surprisingly decent B-movie. In addition, the main star of the expected tragedy is not so much Timothy Olyphant, who at least looks like a man after all, nor Xavier Gens, who doesn't understand the atmosphere of the game, but at least the film goes by fast, but Skip Woods - an inept screenwriter who should have had his license taken away for Swordfish and his hands chopped off for this. There are unnecessary characters (the Russian whore, the Interpol agent), and zero references to the game (2 disguises, the kids sitting at the PC), and instead, we get a lot of filler and a point that goes to waste. As a whole, it’s still off the mark and another notch in the dysfunctional video game adaptations category. However, since I had zero expectations I'll give it 3 stars in the end because if you’re in a good mood, it's a fun and sufficient way to fill an hour and a half. (24/01/2008)

A much bloodier Jason Bourne after hair removal, filmed following the "How to rip off a script and look original" manual. It's not just the music that's stolen from Bourne, and in a way the concept (the killing of a Russian politician, the pursued protagonist always one step ahead), but also some of the scenes, perhaps the most blatant of which is Hitman's analysis of the surrounding diners in a restaurant and listing everything he memorized upon entering. It wouldn't matter so much if there was at least one scene worth pressing the PLAY button repeatedly for. It's not boring, but it's out of your head before you can say Hitman. And it's hard to develop any sympathy for a main character who unscrupulously shoots a man in the back of the head. I haven't played the game and I don't even want to. (15/04/2008)

The script takes the worst of the 1980s, the director doesn't step out of the average and the whole thing takes itself too seriously to be fun. Timothy Olyphant is not bad, the supporting characters are not interesting and the action is far from impressive. And a few winks at fans of the game aren't enough to make an entertaining film. (09/12/2007)

I only played part two of the game this is based on, but I would say that it looked completely the opposite to what Gens tries to present us here (although it’s clear from various details that he knows the series of games back to front, cf. the rubber duck). Instead of wild action sequences and dialog, the game was more about crawling and thinking up the least obvious approach possible. Even “Forty-Seven" had some depth of character. While Olyphant (although I like him and I have no issues with uncompromising hard guys who ooze respect) is about as charismatic as me in this role. So, great material, but nothing comes of it. And the screenplay... Even if any screenplay was ever written, you won’t come across it for the entire ninety minutes. Gens’ Hitman is simply an action pastiche with uninspiringly filmed action that is closer to being a C-movie, rather than coming anywhere near being an A-movie. Lots of stealing (as far as music is concerned), unfaithful to the game it was based on (and to god knows what else) and dumb to the very core. But does that necessarily mean that it isn’t entertaining? No in the least. Because the celluloid Hitman is entertaining. Intentionally or not. (30/05/2008)