A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Organization' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Russia and Eastern Europe.
Coming together to solve a series of murders in New York City are a police detective whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.
Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukranian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept Valentina's safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective.
Director:
Olivier Megaton
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Robert Knepper,
Natalya Rudakova
Mercenary Frank Martin, who specializes moving goods of all kinds, surfaces again this time in Miami, Florida when he's implicated in the kidnapping of the young son of a powerful USA official.
Frank is hired to "transport" packages for unknown clients and has made a very good living doing so. But when asked to move a package that begins moving, complications arise.
Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.
In the south of France, former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin enters into a game of chess with a femme-fatale and her three sidekicks who are looking for revenge against a sinister Russian kingpin.
Los Angeles police officer Brian O'Connor must decide where his loyalties really lie when he becomes enamored with the street racing world he has been sent undercover to destroy.
Director:
Rob Cohen
Stars:
Vin Diesel,
Paul Walker,
Michelle Rodriguez
Dominic Toretto and his crew of street racers plan a massive heist to buy their freedom while in the sights of a powerful Brazilian drug lord and a dangerous federal agent.
A gun-for-hire "Hitman" is a genetically-engineered, elite assassin known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Organization' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe. But even 47 couldn't anticipate a "random equation" in his life exactitude: the unexpected stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a mysterious Russian woman. Written by
Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}
The name of Nika Boronina's (Olga Kurylenko) squirrel/chipmunk, Tishka, is the Russian variation of the English Timothy, which means, "He who honors God." See more »
Goofs
Throughout the first few scenes Nika is in, her makeup is smeared. After 47 lets her out of the trunk and gives her breakfast sandwich, her makeup is suddenly flawless, and she has much less on. See more »
Quotes
Nika Boronina:
[in tears, pleading, as 47 is about to shoot Whittier]
Please... stop.
Agent 47:
[breathing heavy as he lowers his gun]
She saved your life.
See more »
I found this solid and competent. The curious thing is that what it did well, it did not because of what it is, but because it did not stick closely to the world of the video game. This is also why the fan base rejected it.
Apparently, the agent in the game is one of the 47th generation of clones, where the movie has him as the best of a collection of specially trained orphans. Instead of a name, he simply has the number 47.
I also liked the mashup, conventional as it is: Russian mafia, secret supercapable murder enterprise, worldwide conspiracy of priests. Its the spice of the priests that matters, after the Dan Brown conspiracy to make it seem ridiculous and taking the style out of it. It is easier somehow to believe a cabal lead by a Moscow Patriarch instead of the inept Rome.
The girl does what the girl is supposed to do: claim that she is sexually exploited, and then proceed to be exploited by us in much the same way. The assassin does what he is supposed to and does it well: show us unexpected ways that he can manipulate the world, anticipating coincidences and odd subplots. Our designated watcher, the typical American detective, also does his job: watching at a distance.
Why this film deserves a comment and others I see do not, is the way it ends. The form here is reverse noir. In noir, we have a hero, an everyman, who is manipulated by the world of the viewer. He is subject to cosmic coincidences that come not from any natural unfolding, but from our need to have a structured narrative. The watcher unconsciously manipulates the character.
In reverse noir, the character somehow can control the world, so that minor coincidences are anticipated, even controlled by a plan he has that we do not know. We, the viewer, are placed in the thing to be befuddled as we end up as the manipulated soul. I am not sure when this reversed form first appeared; I am hoping a reader can advise. But the form is common enough now to have some endemic problems, the most challenging of which is how to end the film.
This film does that admirably, and it can be said that all the automatic stuff in the middle of the film is arranged to set up this satisfactory ending. The film starts with the beginning of that ending, with the remainder an implicit flashback (meaning only that the story is recalled and not repeated aloud). The ending is set up emotionally as our hit man is incapable of controlling the world so far as a mate, a family. We see him tortured about this. Yes, it is a juvenile portrayal of such an emptiness, but we get it.
So the only way he can get the pleasure of a family is the same way we get the pleasure of killing scads of bad guys: by watching. So while for 90 minutes our detective has been our surrogate watcher, giving us expected thrills and surprises, we reverse once again at the end: now the hit man is the watcher of love and family. We know he will never approach 'the girl' or the detective again, but that he will watch, which we see him doing through the only instrument available, a rifle sight.
This is good writing my friends, where the screenwriter understands the form well enough to manipulate it and us. He was able to give the fanboys something; he was able to give the studio bosses their key elements (boobs, explosions, creation myth, societal anchoring); and yet he was able to give himself a cleverly well ended story. Of how many films can you say that? I see he is working on the next Bruce Willis 'Die Hard.' Bet it is well written too.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
18 of 27 people found this review helpful.
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I found this solid and competent. The curious thing is that what it did well, it did not because of what it is, but because it did not stick closely to the world of the video game. This is also why the fan base rejected it.
Apparently, the agent in the game is one of the 47th generation of clones, where the movie has him as the best of a collection of specially trained orphans. Instead of a name, he simply has the number 47.
I also liked the mashup, conventional as it is: Russian mafia, secret supercapable murder enterprise, worldwide conspiracy of priests. Its the spice of the priests that matters, after the Dan Brown conspiracy to make it seem ridiculous and taking the style out of it. It is easier somehow to believe a cabal lead by a Moscow Patriarch instead of the inept Rome.
The girl does what the girl is supposed to do: claim that she is sexually exploited, and then proceed to be exploited by us in much the same way. The assassin does what he is supposed to and does it well: show us unexpected ways that he can manipulate the world, anticipating coincidences and odd subplots. Our designated watcher, the typical American detective, also does his job: watching at a distance.
Why this film deserves a comment and others I see do not, is the way it ends. The form here is reverse noir. In noir, we have a hero, an everyman, who is manipulated by the world of the viewer. He is subject to cosmic coincidences that come not from any natural unfolding, but from our need to have a structured narrative. The watcher unconsciously manipulates the character.
In reverse noir, the character somehow can control the world, so that minor coincidences are anticipated, even controlled by a plan he has that we do not know. We, the viewer, are placed in the thing to be befuddled as we end up as the manipulated soul. I am not sure when this reversed form first appeared; I am hoping a reader can advise. But the form is common enough now to have some endemic problems, the most challenging of which is how to end the film.
This film does that admirably, and it can be said that all the automatic stuff in the middle of the film is arranged to set up this satisfactory ending. The film starts with the beginning of that ending, with the remainder an implicit flashback (meaning only that the story is recalled and not repeated aloud). The ending is set up emotionally as our hit man is incapable of controlling the world so far as a mate, a family. We see him tortured about this. Yes, it is a juvenile portrayal of such an emptiness, but we get it.
So the only way he can get the pleasure of a family is the same way we get the pleasure of killing scads of bad guys: by watching. So while for 90 minutes our detective has been our surrogate watcher, giving us expected thrills and surprises, we reverse once again at the end: now the hit man is the watcher of love and family. We know he will never approach 'the girl' or the detective again, but that he will watch, which we see him doing through the only instrument available, a rifle sight.
This is good writing my friends, where the screenwriter understands the form well enough to manipulate it and us. He was able to give the fanboys something; he was able to give the studio bosses their key elements (boobs, explosions, creation myth, societal anchoring); and yet he was able to give himself a cleverly well ended story. Of how many films can you say that? I see he is working on the next Bruce Willis 'Die Hard.' Bet it is well written too.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.