After a combination of anticipation and hesitation I saw Hitman at the movies on the weekend. The movie follows the exploits of video game legend Agent 47, from the Hitman collection of games. Agent 47 is a highly trained killer for hire. As in the game, Agent 47 has been trained from birth to become a hitman, working for the "Organization". As in the game, his contact is Diana, a voice on the end of the line that we never get to meet.

The film begins with Agent 47 (played by Timothy Olyphant) seated in the study of the Interpol agent, Mike Whittier (played by Dougray Scott), before flashing back to three months ago.

Agent 47 is assigned a new mission, to publicly assassinate Russian President Mikhail Belicoff. Agent 47 successfully completes his mission using a sniper rifle and making the shot from a near impossible distance. Upon returning to his hotel, he is contacted again by Diana, and is told there was a witness. Just like in the game, Agent 47 does not like to leave witnesses. So off he trots to knock off the witness. Things get weird when he realises that the woman in question, Nika (played by Olga Kurylenko), has never set eyes on him before.

We then learn that the assassination has been covered up, and that Belicoff may or may not have a double. Agent 47 finds himself being setup, with the Russians as well as Interpol hot on his tail. To make matters worse, the Organization also send out some of their employees to take out Agent 47 for his apparent failure. Agent 47 hits the road with Nika, and before long there are shades of a watered down version of the Bourne Identity.

The plot begins to get a little convoluted to the point where it's hard to follow what is driving the 'bad guys' to do what they do. Then we run into the guns blazing finale, lots of bullets and blood, hint at a happy ending, then cue credits.

Hitman is an OK film, not outstanding by any stretch of the imagination, but by the same token, not as terrible as some of the reviews I've read either. Perhaps my judgement is a little skewed due to being a fan of the games, and knowing a bit more of the back story behind the character, and there are certain scenes in the film that are a bit of a nudge nudge wink wink to players of the games. It's not an intelligent movie, and it does borrow liberally from the Bourne trilogy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Another reason to see it is Olga Kurylenko... man she's hot!

In summary, if I had to use one word to describe Hitman it would be "serviceable". I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 pickles.

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