Unnecessary Roughness

By Aaron 11/25/2007

I was really looking forward to Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant, as a real fun actioner in the vein of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. And even though I thought Olga Kurylenko was great, it is damn near impossible to replace a persona (and a body) like Angelina Jolie. Needless to say that my love of Olyphant did not cause me to overlook the fact that he is nowhere near the action character that Brad Pitt is (Olyphant looks like a twig!)

Hitman follows Olyphant as the fabled gamer favorite, Agent 47, trained by the Organization, a semi-religious, all-powerful, conspiracy theorist’s wet dream of an institution. Trained from birth in all forms of violence, these Agents are the perfect weapon, and willing to work for anyone. After an easy job, Agent 47 receives a modification for his next assignment – that it must be public. No problem. Agent 47 sets up, pulls out his sniper rifle, and takes out the target. But it seems something is wrong. The target, who Agent 47 saw take a bullet to the head, is giving a speech. AND, the Organization seems to have given him up. He has been set up. But for whom? And why for? Only a call girl with an attitude can help Agent 47 uncover the plot he has been thrust into.

Maybe the movie tried to be more than it was (something Smith did not). But it does and it delivers more bad hits than good. The action scenes seem poorly pieced together, often having very little to do with each other. The scenes do not even flow well, as action scenes are separated by trips back to the hotel, or to rearm, instead of the running, tense action formula established by Bourne. The political intrigue is confusing only in the sense that it is underdeveloped and ridiculously contrived, a sort of Thunderball meets Face/Off meets every other action movie.

The movie doesn’t even try to help itself – setting Agent 47 up as a perfect specimen. I went back and deleted “near” before perfect because he was perfect – I don’t think he made a single flaw – in planning or action. The result is that the movie has ZERO tension and fights are never really suspenseful – of course Agent 47 is going to win. The best scene was where Agent 47 fought other agents – but that never happens again. Questions like WHY IS THIS HAPPENING are never answered. Perhaps the writers thought those were insignificant next to the explosions and senseless nudity. The movie’s attempt at making itself more intelligent, and building on the game’s storyline was the introduction of an Interpol character hot on Agent 47’s trail. While the actor did a good job, this character was EXTREMELY unnecessary, stole wasted screen time, and was just plain stupid.

Despite the mountain of disappointments, there were a few good things. The first surprise being that I really liked Olyphant. I guess I always do, but he was good here in an action role. The only problem being that Olyphant does not look like he could be Agent 47 – he looks like a nerd. As an aside, his bar-coded head, loved in game play, makes little sense in the movie as Agent 47 never makes an attempt to hide the marking that flaunts his identity. The second surprise was that I really liked Olga. Sure, most of that “liking” was because she was really hot – but she did a hell of a lot better than Asia Argento did in XXX (they look similar, playing mildly similar roles). I would like to see her in a few other movies, maybe a romantic comedy or two. No, not really a romantic comedy, but I did like her. She generated some good chemistry with Olyphant, even though the writers tried to lock him in an emotionless prison. She had good timing and delivery, and lightened the movie up. Chalk up the surprise of Olga, that one good action scene, a little bit of Timothy Olyphant, and I have to hand out a 4/10 saltystix.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.