Hitman (2007)

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.

Director:

Xavier Gens

Writer:

Skip Woods

Stars:

Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Timothy Olyphant	...	Agent 47
Dougray Scott	...	Mike Whittier
Olga Kurylenko	...	Nika Boronina
Robert Knepper	...	Yuri Marklov
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Mikhail Belicoff
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Udre Belicoff
Michael Offei	...	Jenkins
Christian Erickson	...	General Kormarov
Eriq Ebouaney	...	Bwana Ovie
Joe Sheridan	...	Captain Gudnayev
James Faulkner	...	Smith Jamison
Jean-Marc Bellu	...	Hitman #2
Nicky Naudé	...	Hitman #3 (as Nicky Naude)
Abdou Sagna	...	Hitman #4
Ilya Nikitenko	...	Hitman #5

Storyline

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.

---

Plot Keywords:

hitman | topless female nudity | interpol | agent 47 | assassin | 

---

Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Europa Corp. [France] Twentieth Century Fox [United States]

Country:

France USA

Language:

English Russian Serbo-Croatian

Release Date:

21 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hitman - Agente 47

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Box Office

Budget:

$24,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,180,769, 24 November 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$39,687,694

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$99,965,792

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, EuropaCorp, Anka Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 94 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is influenced by Luc Besson.

---

Goofs

The light switch in Whittier's house (which is supposed to be in London), is a broad continental Europe style switch, instead of the smaller thinner switches you find for British lights. This indicates that the scene was filmed somewhere else.

---

Quotes

Yuri Marklov: [screaming] You bastard!
Agent 47: Yell all you like - the Lord himself won't hear you.

---

Alternate Versions

The Unrated version contains an extra 63 seconds of mostly violence.

---

Connections

Remade as Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

---

Soundtracks

As Vezez Amanha
Written and Performed by Gilberto Candido
Courtesy of Extreme Music

User Reviews

So-so genre film that is nothing to write home about

From childhood Agent 47 was trained and conditioned to kill. As an adult he is one of many hit men working for The Organisation across the world – killing on behalf of unseen clients. However when a successful hit on the Russian president is presented as a near miss, 47 realises that something is up – a realisation only confirmed when the Russian authorities converge on his position. Having dealt with them, Agent 47 goes on the offensive to expose those that have turned against him.

Hit-man got very poor reviews when it came out in the cinemas and this was enough to make me skip it then, but not totally enough when it came to DVD. Seeing it for myself I must say that the majority of critics were being a bit too snotty but mostly did have a point because this is certainly not a very good film. However it is not a terrible one by any means. As many others have said, this is a case of a film not even pretending to do anything other than the genre basics and I cannot imagine many viewers would have come to this not knowing what to expect. In that regard it does just that in all aspects – good and bad, well "so-so" and bad. The action sequences are typical slow-motion, stylised stuff that you have seen countless other places. They are not remarkable but they do provide distraction in how easy they are to watch.

So far so genre but in other areas it doesn't even really do the basics. The plot has potential but the delivery is fudged and the significance or extent is not that well expressed and seemed detached from the action, rather than driving it. Compare and contrast it with the Bourne films and you'll get my meaning because I thought that trilogy did it much better than this film. The dialogue is also poor and at times it does feel like it has been written by a piece of software rather than people. The dialogue also knocks onto the performances. Olyphant is solid enough when asked to be cool and deadly but in scenes where he has to do more he mostly flounders. Scott has more talking to do and at times he sounds like he can barely be bothered to pronounce the words – he is poor from start to finish. Kurylenko has the thankless task of being the "sexy plot device" and is not helped by some terrible dialogue that would have taken some amazing delivery and chemistry to make work – she cannot do the delivery and she cannot break the cold hit-man to produce chemistry. The rest of the cast are so-so but do the basics well enough.

Hit-man is not a rubbish film by any means bur I can understand why many "proper" critics gave it such a kicking. The reason is that it is totally generic in the areas where it should have been strong (the action) and in every other area it is subpar even by the standards of the genre.