Postal
So here we are back at Boll. But wait!!! This one’s different. Not only is this a good Boll movie but it is, in my opinion, at the time of writing this thee best video game movie of all time. I know you’re probably saying bullshit but I swear to you. If this review doesn’t convince you then please go rent the movie I promise you will enjoy it. Anyway enough out of me onto the review.
Postal is about a guy whose life is shit. His wife’s cheating on him his neighbors are assholes and he can’t seem to catch a break then well like the title suggests he goes postal and him and his uncle come up with a plan to get rich however during the course of the movie the postal guy has to deal with the police, terrorists, red necks and a religious cult.
Ok so first off let me say this. Postal was made to offend everyone and I do mean everyone. From the president to Osama bin Laden no one is safe in this movie. The movie parody’s red necks, religious fanatics, terrorists, big corporations, bush, news reporters, kids shows, baristas, midgets, and Uwe Boll even makes fun of himself.
Now to give you just an idea about how offensive this movie is I will describe the opening scene for you. We open on two Middle Eastern men discussing how proud they are to die for Allah. However they hit a snag when they find out Osama promised them different amounts of virgins when they get to heaven. So after a minute or two of arguing they call Osama to confirm the amount of virgins. At the end of the phone call they decide the amount of virgins isn’t enough to die over and want to turn the plane around and go to the Bahamas. At this point the passengers break into the cockpit and start to wrestle control of the plane away from the terrorists. The camera then zooms out to a window washer as we see the plane crash into the building the window washer is on and it’s apparent now that it’s the twin towers.
Now if you aren’t offended by that opening then chances are you will enjoy the rest of the movie and there’s plenty movie to enjoy and plenty of laughs to be had but I think that’s enough of me raving about the movie let’s get down to the gritty details.
Like the game Postal is very violent. There is a shootout at the unemployment office, a hilariously named little Germany amusement park, a trailer park and a terrorist compound that used to be the base of a religious cult. There’s also a stabbing of a beggar, hundreds of children die, a midget gets raped by 1000 monkeys, and a suicide bomber blows up a religious nut on a street corner among other things.
As far as likenesses to the game there’s plenty. First off the main character is named postal dude just like in the game also the local convenience store is a hide out for a terrorist cell. There’s a religious cult which is actually just a money scam run by the postal dudes Uncle Dave who is played by Dave Foley. The people making the movie tried to get Gary Coleman to reprise his role from the game but unfortunately he was unavailable but they did get Vern Troyer (mini me form the Austin powers movies) to play himself.
There was a great scene that takes place at an amusement park called little Germany where Uwe Boll makes fun of himself. In the scene Boll is being interviewed because he’s the owner of little Germany and there is a line where he’s asked how he funds his movies and his response is “well many people believe my movies are funded by Nazi gold and well, it’s true” then later Vince Desiderio the creator of the Postal game disguised as a Krotchy doll shoots Uwe Boll in the testicles and blames him for making a crappy movie from his game. As Boll is dyeing he declares “I hate video games” then falls over dead.
The similarities don’t stop there either like I mentioned above Krotchy dolls are a major focus point. The dude’s wife is nagging and cheating on him his dog is also named champ like in the game. At one point the dude uses a live cat as a silencer however unlike in the game the cat lives. And last but not least the end of the movie like the game ends with the apocalypse.
Now the acting is fantastic especially in the case of the actors playing Bush and Bin Laden. I mean it’s a comedy movie so don’t expect jaw dropping dramatic performances but everyone delivers there lines with perfect timing and both Dave Foley who was on kids in the hall for a long time and Zach Ward who was on Titus are veteran comedic actors and it shows. I may be a little bias as I have always been a fan of Zach ward and was super excited he was the postal dude and to be honest I think he looks like the postal dude with the exception of the red hair.
The plot is not a direct retelling of the events from postal or postal 2 but it has the attitude and feel of the games most of this I attribute to the fact that Desiderio was involved with the script and production of the game witch again simply proves my point that if video game companies where more involved with the movies based or three games we would get better quality video game adaptations.
There will be no how I would do it section in this review as I think this movie is perfect the way it is.
Overall the movie is a perfect example of a good adaptation. It has the characters and the attitude and feeling of the game it’s based on there’s all kinds of little things like the cat silencer for the fans to pick up on and if you’re not a completely stuck up person then you can enjoy the incredibly offensive humor.
Overall I give postal 10 out of 10 dead Gary Coleman’s. The movie like I said above is just about perfect in terms of a video game adaptation incorporating lots of stuff from the game including the overall attitude.
The acting gets 9 out of 10. It’s almost perfect timing on all the lines and the writing is so good that even the crappy actors, IE the hot girls, come off as funny.
The plot gets 9 out of 10. It’s not a perfect translation but it is enough like the game that nobody should care and it was good enough that the creator of the game himself allowed it to be made.
The content gets 10 out of 10. Just about every single character or type of character from the game is in the movie.
Well we are now 1 movie away from finishing of the Boll movies and that movie is Far Cry I’m also downloading a copy of alone in the dark 2 however this is simply being produced by Boll he is not writing or directing like the rest of his movies so I’m not counting it as his. After Far Cry is Max Payne followed by the new street fighter both of which I plan to have done in less than a month because in august Tekken comes out and the creators have made a public statement that they are committed to making the best fighting game adaptation yet and promise it will be nothing like the street fighter movies or the Mortal Kombat movies.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
In the name of the King A Dungeon Siege Tale
In the name of the King
A Dungeon Siege Tale
He’s back!!! That’s right your favorite director is back with another masterpiece. Oh wait I’m not reviewing a good movie? I’m still doing movies based on videogames? CRAP!!!! That means it’s another Uwe Boll movie doesn’t it? Ok well this movie had a big budget and actors people know so it’s got to be good right? Right?
Dungeon siege is about a simple farmer named farmer whose wife and son are kidnapped when a race of monsters called Krugs attack the kingdom of Ehb. Farmer fights them off rescuing a few people along the way and later joins the king’s army to help fight an evil wizard.
Ok so this time around Boll gets a big budget and what’s he do with it? Hires one of the more popular action stars at the time (Statham) hires a sometimes b sometimes a list actor (Ron Pearlman) and hires 2 ex superstar actors (Reynolds and Liotta) add in one CG and special effects fight scene and a whole two armies rushing at Each other and you get dungeon siege.
Let’s get this straight right off the bat I don’t blame the actors I blame the casting director or whoever is responsible for hiring the actors and choosing their roles. It seems boll just wanted as many big names as possible to try to get people to come see this movie. I mean Burt Reynolds and ray Liotta are good actors but to cast them in medieval/fantasy roles like this is just silly and produced only laughter from me.
Statham is great as always especially since this is a purely action role and that is certainly where he excels. Thank god ray Liotta was the bad guy anything and it probably would have been completely unwatchable. It was hard enough hearing him shout threats about magic. Reynolds isn’t a bad actor but again I just don’t think a medieval role was right for him.
It’s not just the incorrectly cast actors either most of the dialog is just silly even for a fantasy movie. But there are a few things the movie does right. The action is well shot and until the last fight scene is pretty good. In the last scene the movie forgets it’s a fantasy movie and thinks it’s the matrix, With Statham flipping all over the place in an unfitting display of wire-fu.
The other thing the movie does right is the content and story compared to the game and that’s double surprising considering it’s a Boll movie. The story is almost identical to the one in the game and they even went as far as to name the main character farmer witch I think is great. The Krug are from the game and look and act like the digital counterparts as well the kingdom is named correctly as well as the town of stone bridge. Statham even collects party members along the way.
A lot of critics complained about the action being very similar to lord of the rings but I think that’s a bull shit complaint. 300, troy, kingdom of heaven, king Arthur, and Alexander all have army on army action scenes and there were plenty of movies before lord of the rings to have them as well I think this complaint was simply made for the sake of complaining and is another reason I hate professional critics.
And last but not certainly not least Boll again gets the music right. This time going with power metal bands like blind guardian, and Hammerfall. The soundtrack is certainly a treat if you are a fan of power metal and I would suggest it if you’re not but curious as to what good metal sounds like.
So those are certainly the only pro besides the fact that I think Leelee Sobieski is hot. But wait!!! There’s plenty more cons. The story itself while most of it stems from the game is predictable and boring because of the out of place actors it’s hard to care about anyone when the king is poisoned I laughed I couldn’t help it.
I did happen to run into a higher up from gas powered games while working at Comp USA (their offices where incredibly close as where Microsoft’s.) and he told me he was the one of the ones who sold the rights to Boll. I asked him why he would do that and his reply was money. And this leads me to another point.
Videogame movies would not be bad if the companies behind the original game where involved in the production a little more and possibly set certain stipulations ahead of time. More often then not a company collects its cash and could care less how fans of the game feel about how shitty and raped our games get I have two examples for you. The first is silent hill Konami was involved with the making of this movie from start to finish and it turned out great and should have been pleasing to any fan of the game unless they are a fan boy/fan girl who are never satisfied with anything. The second is Max Payne now this is certainly not the worst video game movie in fact I liked it a lot but the coo of remedy entertainment said he hated the Max Payne movie and wasn’t satisfied with it until it started making money then he loved it.
Anyway back to the movie at hand I believe we are at the how I would do it section. And if you haven’t already guessed the biggest thing for me would be casting Statham and Pearlman where fine in my opinion but Liotta and Reynolds definitely not. I would have ditched the matrixesque fight scene in the end for a more traditional one on one possibly giving farmer a few spells considering every class in the game has them that way it could be spell vs. spell sort of thing.
Overall the movie blows, one or two decent performances do nothing to save this movie and the action while entertaining at times is just as bland as the dialog the music is great and there’s lots of stuff from the games but it was almost doomed from the start with Boll at the helm. The good news is after this Boll said he would never again work with a big budget so thank god for small miracles.
Over all the movie gets 5 out of 10 poisoned kings. It does have a lot from the games but out of place actors and passable action pull this one into the mud.
The acting gets 3 out of 10 only two performances where any good and the rest where laughable passable or downright bad.
The plot gets 6 out of 10 most of it was straight from the game with a few minor changes.
The content gets 7 out of 10 a good chunk of classes and races where included as well as locations and monster design and the Krug even said “Krug” like in the game.
Ok another one done and quickly this time mostly because I’m eager to review the next movie on my list witch if you read my top ten best and worst video game movies you would know it is by far the best video game movie ever made and here’s the real kicker it’s another Boll movie. That’s right up next is postal and boy oh boy it is a duzy then on to far cry to wrap up the Boll movies then Max Payne and as soon as Chun-Li comes out ill take care of that one which will complete the catching up and then I’ll be able to review movies as they hit theaters as long as I’m able to see them.
A Dungeon Siege Tale
He’s back!!! That’s right your favorite director is back with another masterpiece. Oh wait I’m not reviewing a good movie? I’m still doing movies based on videogames? CRAP!!!! That means it’s another Uwe Boll movie doesn’t it? Ok well this movie had a big budget and actors people know so it’s got to be good right? Right?
Dungeon siege is about a simple farmer named farmer whose wife and son are kidnapped when a race of monsters called Krugs attack the kingdom of Ehb. Farmer fights them off rescuing a few people along the way and later joins the king’s army to help fight an evil wizard.
Ok so this time around Boll gets a big budget and what’s he do with it? Hires one of the more popular action stars at the time (Statham) hires a sometimes b sometimes a list actor (Ron Pearlman) and hires 2 ex superstar actors (Reynolds and Liotta) add in one CG and special effects fight scene and a whole two armies rushing at Each other and you get dungeon siege.
Let’s get this straight right off the bat I don’t blame the actors I blame the casting director or whoever is responsible for hiring the actors and choosing their roles. It seems boll just wanted as many big names as possible to try to get people to come see this movie. I mean Burt Reynolds and ray Liotta are good actors but to cast them in medieval/fantasy roles like this is just silly and produced only laughter from me.
Statham is great as always especially since this is a purely action role and that is certainly where he excels. Thank god ray Liotta was the bad guy anything and it probably would have been completely unwatchable. It was hard enough hearing him shout threats about magic. Reynolds isn’t a bad actor but again I just don’t think a medieval role was right for him.
It’s not just the incorrectly cast actors either most of the dialog is just silly even for a fantasy movie. But there are a few things the movie does right. The action is well shot and until the last fight scene is pretty good. In the last scene the movie forgets it’s a fantasy movie and thinks it’s the matrix, With Statham flipping all over the place in an unfitting display of wire-fu.
The other thing the movie does right is the content and story compared to the game and that’s double surprising considering it’s a Boll movie. The story is almost identical to the one in the game and they even went as far as to name the main character farmer witch I think is great. The Krug are from the game and look and act like the digital counterparts as well the kingdom is named correctly as well as the town of stone bridge. Statham even collects party members along the way.
A lot of critics complained about the action being very similar to lord of the rings but I think that’s a bull shit complaint. 300, troy, kingdom of heaven, king Arthur, and Alexander all have army on army action scenes and there were plenty of movies before lord of the rings to have them as well I think this complaint was simply made for the sake of complaining and is another reason I hate professional critics.
And last but not certainly not least Boll again gets the music right. This time going with power metal bands like blind guardian, and Hammerfall. The soundtrack is certainly a treat if you are a fan of power metal and I would suggest it if you’re not but curious as to what good metal sounds like.
So those are certainly the only pro besides the fact that I think Leelee Sobieski is hot. But wait!!! There’s plenty more cons. The story itself while most of it stems from the game is predictable and boring because of the out of place actors it’s hard to care about anyone when the king is poisoned I laughed I couldn’t help it.
I did happen to run into a higher up from gas powered games while working at Comp USA (their offices where incredibly close as where Microsoft’s.) and he told me he was the one of the ones who sold the rights to Boll. I asked him why he would do that and his reply was money. And this leads me to another point.
Videogame movies would not be bad if the companies behind the original game where involved in the production a little more and possibly set certain stipulations ahead of time. More often then not a company collects its cash and could care less how fans of the game feel about how shitty and raped our games get I have two examples for you. The first is silent hill Konami was involved with the making of this movie from start to finish and it turned out great and should have been pleasing to any fan of the game unless they are a fan boy/fan girl who are never satisfied with anything. The second is Max Payne now this is certainly not the worst video game movie in fact I liked it a lot but the coo of remedy entertainment said he hated the Max Payne movie and wasn’t satisfied with it until it started making money then he loved it.
Anyway back to the movie at hand I believe we are at the how I would do it section. And if you haven’t already guessed the biggest thing for me would be casting Statham and Pearlman where fine in my opinion but Liotta and Reynolds definitely not. I would have ditched the matrixesque fight scene in the end for a more traditional one on one possibly giving farmer a few spells considering every class in the game has them that way it could be spell vs. spell sort of thing.
Overall the movie blows, one or two decent performances do nothing to save this movie and the action while entertaining at times is just as bland as the dialog the music is great and there’s lots of stuff from the games but it was almost doomed from the start with Boll at the helm. The good news is after this Boll said he would never again work with a big budget so thank god for small miracles.
Over all the movie gets 5 out of 10 poisoned kings. It does have a lot from the games but out of place actors and passable action pull this one into the mud.
The acting gets 3 out of 10 only two performances where any good and the rest where laughable passable or downright bad.
The plot gets 6 out of 10 most of it was straight from the game with a few minor changes.
The content gets 7 out of 10 a good chunk of classes and races where included as well as locations and monster design and the Krug even said “Krug” like in the game.
Ok another one done and quickly this time mostly because I’m eager to review the next movie on my list witch if you read my top ten best and worst video game movies you would know it is by far the best video game movie ever made and here’s the real kicker it’s another Boll movie. That’s right up next is postal and boy oh boy it is a duzy then on to far cry to wrap up the Boll movies then Max Payne and as soon as Chun-Li comes out ill take care of that one which will complete the catching up and then I’ll be able to review movies as they hit theaters as long as I’m able to see them.
confessions of a media pirate
Confessions of a Media Pirate
So the other day I was surfing around IMDB and found a thread that was discussing pirating aka illegal downloading and the morality of it. Well I am a media pirate. I download movies music video games TV shows and I also copy any movie I rent and enjoy. But what comes next may surprise you. I am not here to defend myself or pirating in general I’m here to let everyone know that me and anyone else who downloads for free is a thief plain and simple.
Pirating has been around for a long time now its older then everyone thinks with one of the very first uses of the term going all the way back to 1703 where a book written by Daniel Defoe was being printed over and over again without him receiving anything for it. Before 1999 pirating was limited to computer savvy people who would use things like Usenet and IRC. Non computer savvy people could find bootleg movies and tapes at flea markets. Then in 99 Napster was created and suddenly getting a hold of pirated material was easier than ever. Napster was eventually shut down but other peer to peer or P2P networks and programs took its place followed shortly by Bit Torrent and its indexing sites.
I have read and listened to numerous arguments for piracy and frankly they are all bullshit. People say it’s there right to listen to the music or see the movie and this is simply crazy. You have no right to use other peoples work whether it be a movie or music unless you have permission from the creators or you pay the money to do so.
Another argument I hear a lot is that the downloader wouldn’t have bought the movie or CD anyway so getting it for free is not hurting anyone. Again this is bullshit it is an excuse to moralize something you know is wrong. If you were not going to see the movie or listen to the CD why download it in the first place? Last but not least the other argument is movie studios/record labels/software companies all have plenty of money and are not hurt financially by the downloader.
This last one pisses me off the most because yes the CEO of a company or the music exec or the actors or directors usually have plenty of money and aren’t going to be hurt by a download. However the guy who sweeps the floor, the lighting guys, the dishwashers, the guys that get yelled at by Christian bale and other low level employees probably don’t have plenty of money and will end up being hurt by your actions.
Then we have the people who say they wanted to sample something before buying it and maybe in 99 that would have been valid but now ten years later there are plenty of legal ways to sample things. You can rent a movie for 5 bucks you can listen to free music via legal sites like Songza. Programs like Veoh and websites like Hulu allow you to see free legal TV and movies.
By now a lot of you are probably calling me a hypocrite and laughing amongst your selves about how stupid I am for bashing pirates when I am one myself but that’s where you’re wrong. I’m not bashing pirates I’m bashing pirates that try and defend what they do morally. 99% of the time downloading stuff from the net is illegal and stealing.
There are a few exceptions where P2P and file sharing networks can be used for good. The first is open source software and free to distribute media. Like 2 years ago Radiohead put its entire album out for free or for you to pay as much as you thought the album was worth. Movies like download this movie and CD's like steal this album are being promoted for you to download or pirate and even if the artist didn’t intend for the media to be pirated if you name your CD steal this album you deserve the consequences.
One other way downloading is morally right and legally is with fan subs of anime. A fan sub is when a group of people take an anime that is only in Japan or another Asian country and add their own subtitles to it. This is the rare example of when torrents and other file sharing tools help an industry. Most fan subing groups will not sub a series any longer if the series has been licensed in America and will then encourage the fans to buy the DVDs and most will. This way of doing things introduces shows to fans and increases fan base thus increasing sales for the actual product.
And if this is how it actually worked with movies and music then file sharing would be great if it was actually possible to see something before it was out and all it did was make people want to buy it more than it would work well but it doesn’t the cold hard truth is pirating is stealing I do it and if you download without paying you do it too.
I’m a pirater and I’m a thief and all I have to say is I hope the FBI never checks my house.
So the other day I was surfing around IMDB and found a thread that was discussing pirating aka illegal downloading and the morality of it. Well I am a media pirate. I download movies music video games TV shows and I also copy any movie I rent and enjoy. But what comes next may surprise you. I am not here to defend myself or pirating in general I’m here to let everyone know that me and anyone else who downloads for free is a thief plain and simple.
Pirating has been around for a long time now its older then everyone thinks with one of the very first uses of the term going all the way back to 1703 where a book written by Daniel Defoe was being printed over and over again without him receiving anything for it. Before 1999 pirating was limited to computer savvy people who would use things like Usenet and IRC. Non computer savvy people could find bootleg movies and tapes at flea markets. Then in 99 Napster was created and suddenly getting a hold of pirated material was easier than ever. Napster was eventually shut down but other peer to peer or P2P networks and programs took its place followed shortly by Bit Torrent and its indexing sites.
I have read and listened to numerous arguments for piracy and frankly they are all bullshit. People say it’s there right to listen to the music or see the movie and this is simply crazy. You have no right to use other peoples work whether it be a movie or music unless you have permission from the creators or you pay the money to do so.
Another argument I hear a lot is that the downloader wouldn’t have bought the movie or CD anyway so getting it for free is not hurting anyone. Again this is bullshit it is an excuse to moralize something you know is wrong. If you were not going to see the movie or listen to the CD why download it in the first place? Last but not least the other argument is movie studios/record labels/software companies all have plenty of money and are not hurt financially by the downloader.
This last one pisses me off the most because yes the CEO of a company or the music exec or the actors or directors usually have plenty of money and aren’t going to be hurt by a download. However the guy who sweeps the floor, the lighting guys, the dishwashers, the guys that get yelled at by Christian bale and other low level employees probably don’t have plenty of money and will end up being hurt by your actions.
Then we have the people who say they wanted to sample something before buying it and maybe in 99 that would have been valid but now ten years later there are plenty of legal ways to sample things. You can rent a movie for 5 bucks you can listen to free music via legal sites like Songza. Programs like Veoh and websites like Hulu allow you to see free legal TV and movies.
By now a lot of you are probably calling me a hypocrite and laughing amongst your selves about how stupid I am for bashing pirates when I am one myself but that’s where you’re wrong. I’m not bashing pirates I’m bashing pirates that try and defend what they do morally. 99% of the time downloading stuff from the net is illegal and stealing.
There are a few exceptions where P2P and file sharing networks can be used for good. The first is open source software and free to distribute media. Like 2 years ago Radiohead put its entire album out for free or for you to pay as much as you thought the album was worth. Movies like download this movie and CD's like steal this album are being promoted for you to download or pirate and even if the artist didn’t intend for the media to be pirated if you name your CD steal this album you deserve the consequences.
One other way downloading is morally right and legally is with fan subs of anime. A fan sub is when a group of people take an anime that is only in Japan or another Asian country and add their own subtitles to it. This is the rare example of when torrents and other file sharing tools help an industry. Most fan subing groups will not sub a series any longer if the series has been licensed in America and will then encourage the fans to buy the DVDs and most will. This way of doing things introduces shows to fans and increases fan base thus increasing sales for the actual product.
And if this is how it actually worked with movies and music then file sharing would be great if it was actually possible to see something before it was out and all it did was make people want to buy it more than it would work well but it doesn’t the cold hard truth is pirating is stealing I do it and if you download without paying you do it too.
I’m a pirater and I’m a thief and all I have to say is I hope the FBI never checks my house.
Monday, June 1, 2009
HITMAN movie review
HITMAN
How good can a game about being the best assassin on the planet translate into a movie? Will Luc Besson being a producer help this movie pass the hurdle that so many other video game movies have failed to in the past? Well read on to find out.
Hitman is about an assassin named agent 47 who works for the “agency” and is considered the best assassin in the world who never misses a target. His latest assignment has him killing the Russian president but something goes wrong and 47 is now being chased by his own agency as well as the cops and has to find out who is setting him up before they kill him.
Ok so I haven’t played every single Hitman I played most of the second one on ps2. And from what I’ve found out 47 is a clone in the games and has increased strength and agility in the movie they dump the clone thing and have the agency take in orphans and train them to be assassins.
What I remember from the game is the many different ways you could get to and kill your target. There where disguises, poison, piano wire and of course 47s dual pistols. Now while in the movie 47 does impersonate a person in one scene its more guns blazing action then sneaky spy stuff. However the movie does do a good job of showing off 47’s intelligence and other skills as an assassin.
The action scenes where good they weren’t too over the top and fit within the story nicely unlike other movies where the action seems to be there just to be there. 47, Diana, the agency and agent smith are all from the games. But in the games agent smith is a bumbling fool who keeps getting himself caught while in the movie he is a very competent CIA agent.
Throughout the movie 47 has his signature outfit and pistols. The barcode tattoo is present. His insignia is everywhere and he genuinely acts like 47.
I believe that the movie was able to capture 47’s neutral attitude not caring one way or the other if someone has to die for his mission even a bystander but like just about every other assassin movie it suffers from sudden emotionitis. Sudden emotionitis is when a movie character that at first is shown as ruthless or uncaring about anyone ends up uncharacteristically caring for someone more than they should. The professional, Bangkok dangerous, chronicles of Riddick and the Bourne identity are a few, this doesn’t make them bad movies it’s just a trend that seems to show up a lot.
There is a deleted scene in the DVD that shows the female lead being killed while 47 watches as opposed to the original where 47 protects her from another Hitman. Apparently some of the original scenes hinted at 47 being a clone but it was changed at the last minute and some scenes where reshot.
The acting was pretty good Timothy Olyphant was good as 47 keeping a calm tone even when threatening to kill just like in the game and it was nice to see a bald main character who isn’t Vin Diesel or Jason Statham.
The plot could be a Hitman type plot as far as killing the president and finding out who set him up but the movie dumps 47’s background for the one invented for the film.
Overall this is definitely one of the better video game movies out there the acting and action are great and entertaining and it does a decent job of capturing some of the main themes from the game.
Overall I give the movie 7 out of 10 AMT Hardballers. The action and acting was good the director did a nice job with the scenes and it was an all around decent movie.
The acting gets 7 out of 10. No award winning performances here but decent job all around.
The plot gets 5 out of 10. Like I said not a direct Hitman plot but could very well be however it loses points for dumping the clone story line.
The content gets 6 out of 10. Most major players are here. Hitman's classic outfit is present as are his guns and insignia.
Ok well that wraps up this short and sweet review next we have a bad good bad sequence of boll movies and no the good is not a typo then Max Payne. And somewhere in there will be my review of Boll himself. Then sometime soon I will review Chun Li and in august Tekken hits theaters.
How good can a game about being the best assassin on the planet translate into a movie? Will Luc Besson being a producer help this movie pass the hurdle that so many other video game movies have failed to in the past? Well read on to find out.
Hitman is about an assassin named agent 47 who works for the “agency” and is considered the best assassin in the world who never misses a target. His latest assignment has him killing the Russian president but something goes wrong and 47 is now being chased by his own agency as well as the cops and has to find out who is setting him up before they kill him.
Ok so I haven’t played every single Hitman I played most of the second one on ps2. And from what I’ve found out 47 is a clone in the games and has increased strength and agility in the movie they dump the clone thing and have the agency take in orphans and train them to be assassins.
What I remember from the game is the many different ways you could get to and kill your target. There where disguises, poison, piano wire and of course 47s dual pistols. Now while in the movie 47 does impersonate a person in one scene its more guns blazing action then sneaky spy stuff. However the movie does do a good job of showing off 47’s intelligence and other skills as an assassin.
The action scenes where good they weren’t too over the top and fit within the story nicely unlike other movies where the action seems to be there just to be there. 47, Diana, the agency and agent smith are all from the games. But in the games agent smith is a bumbling fool who keeps getting himself caught while in the movie he is a very competent CIA agent.
Throughout the movie 47 has his signature outfit and pistols. The barcode tattoo is present. His insignia is everywhere and he genuinely acts like 47.
I believe that the movie was able to capture 47’s neutral attitude not caring one way or the other if someone has to die for his mission even a bystander but like just about every other assassin movie it suffers from sudden emotionitis. Sudden emotionitis is when a movie character that at first is shown as ruthless or uncaring about anyone ends up uncharacteristically caring for someone more than they should. The professional, Bangkok dangerous, chronicles of Riddick and the Bourne identity are a few, this doesn’t make them bad movies it’s just a trend that seems to show up a lot.
There is a deleted scene in the DVD that shows the female lead being killed while 47 watches as opposed to the original where 47 protects her from another Hitman. Apparently some of the original scenes hinted at 47 being a clone but it was changed at the last minute and some scenes where reshot.
The acting was pretty good Timothy Olyphant was good as 47 keeping a calm tone even when threatening to kill just like in the game and it was nice to see a bald main character who isn’t Vin Diesel or Jason Statham.
The plot could be a Hitman type plot as far as killing the president and finding out who set him up but the movie dumps 47’s background for the one invented for the film.
Overall this is definitely one of the better video game movies out there the acting and action are great and entertaining and it does a decent job of capturing some of the main themes from the game.
Overall I give the movie 7 out of 10 AMT Hardballers. The action and acting was good the director did a nice job with the scenes and it was an all around decent movie.
The acting gets 7 out of 10. No award winning performances here but decent job all around.
The plot gets 5 out of 10. Like I said not a direct Hitman plot but could very well be however it loses points for dumping the clone story line.
The content gets 6 out of 10. Most major players are here. Hitman's classic outfit is present as are his guns and insignia.
Ok well that wraps up this short and sweet review next we have a bad good bad sequence of boll movies and no the good is not a typo then Max Payne. And somewhere in there will be my review of Boll himself. Then sometime soon I will review Chun Li and in august Tekken hits theaters.
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