Movie Review: Hitman

First I need to tell you about the game "Hitman". I love this game. Not everyone does. Some people I know don't have the game playing skills or strategic skills to play this game. Others prefer more shoot-em-up games. Me (and my parrot) love "Hitman", "Thief", and other sneak around games. Instead of running along a set path and shooting everything that moves you have an open area, a mission, and you get to solve it however you like.

In the "Hitman" games you play Agent 47. You're one of a legion of cloned super assassins. However, of all the clones you alone rebelled against their control and went off on your own.

To describe the game play I'll describe level one of "Hitman 2". A priest who was giving you shelter as you tried to leave the life of an assassin has been kidnapped. You got in touch with "The Agency" and they'll help you find him if you do a few jobs for them.
As the level starts you find yourself outside the compound of the guy who took your friend. There's a large front gate with two guards, a side gate with a guard inside, and a side-rear gate with two guards inside. A delivery boy is bringing groceries in the side-rear gate. A mailman is coming to deliver flowers to the front gate. The guard in the side gate will come out to pee in a little bit. You need to check the basement for your friend and kill the guy who owns the place.
You can play the level one of several ways. Get a loud gun, kill the guards in the front, and let everyone rush you.
You can get a quiet gun, quietly kill all the guards along the perimeter, work your way inward killing everyone and everything until the boss is left undefended.
You can kill the delivery boy, take his clothes, walk in the side of the house right past the guards.
You can wait for the guard to come out the side door to pee, kill him, take his clothes, hide the body, go into the garage, get the sniper rifle, leave, go up on the hill across the road, snipe the boss as he's practicing his golf swing. Go look for your friend while everyone is running around looking for the sniper.
You can knock out the mailman, take the clothes and the flowers, hide the body, put your guns in the grocery crates, approach the front gate, get frisked and waived on, deliver the flowers, when they turn their back you sneak into the kitchen, take your guns out of the grocery crates that have been delivered, sneak upstairs, go out on the balcony, peer through the keyhole, wait for guards to pass, go inside, kill a guard, take his clothes, kill the boss and his guard, get the car key, go downstairs, see that your friend was moved, get to the garage, steal the car and drive away.

In the trailer they play up the religious aspects mentioned in the second game. It leads you to believe they really did it up for the movie. But there's no mention of it anywhere. They also play up the music and many other aspects familiar from the game.

In the movie we meet someone who is what Bruce Wayne would have been if he'd become an assassin instead of a vigilante super hero. He knows how to fight, plans carefully, avoids personal entanglements, doesn't get emotionally involved, and doesn't want others doing his job.
He's one of many children kidnapped from around the world and trained as assassins. After pulling off a job killing a promising Russian presidential contender he finds that the man he killed is still alive and now there's a hit out for him. He and the hooker/girlfriend of the Russian politician are on the run for their lives while trying to solve the puzzle of who is trying to kill them and why the man 47 killed isn't dead.
The makeup, costumes, and cinematography match the game. The music is played in the beginning but ignored after that. The movie is shot like a series of game levels cut down to show only what's needed in 2 hours. They do the fight scenes without resorting to Matrix-type effects. They show some of the setup like you might do for a level but not enough for my tastes. I would have expected a few mini "Oceans 11" or "Thomas Crown Affair" type scenes.

For an action movie from 10 years ago this would be considered pretty damn good. But we've had "The Matrix" and a couple of "Bourne Whatever" movies to spoil us.

What really makes me keep from giving a glowing review is the fact that there's a few scenes that got re-dubbed badly so that the words and the lips start to give you a translated kung-fu movie feel.

Not sure if I'll get it on DVD. I want to like it more than I did.