...a better film than I was expecting, even if it doesn't do much beyond the ordinary.
As I say, "Hitman" moves along at a healthy clip, offers fans of the video game all the thrills they could want, and at ninety-four minutes never overstays its welcome. I just wish it offered a little more creativity and provided us with a character who was a little more colorful and memorable. I guess you take what you can get.
The version of the film I watched on Blu-ray is Unrated, meaning it contains an excess of violence, blood, brutality, nudity, and profanity. Emphasis on the violence.
Video:
This is one of those movies whose video quality is a little hard to judge because you don't know exactly what the director's intent was in choosing the look and color palette he did. The movie's aspect ratio is 2.35:1, and the Blu-ray video engineers used an MPEG4/AVC encode for the 1080 transfer. Now, what we see is an oddly dull, waxen appearance to the film and its characters, with hues intentionally toned down, probably to emulate the look of the video game. Sometimes the picture purposely smooths over details, and there is a smokey veil over many of the scenes, especially indoor shots. Dark areas of the screen are a tad murky, while a fine film grain actually aids the texture of the images. I'd say the transfer probably does justice to the original print, it's certainly clean enough and free of digital artifacts, but that doesn't necessarily qualify it as the best high-definition picture in the world.
Audio:
The disc's 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio leaves little one could desire. Except perhaps a greater use of the surrounds, given all the shooting and explosions that go on. Still, the audio does its job with commendable ease. The dynamic range and impact are impressive. Bass is deep and solid, evident from the opening titles' organ pedals and going on to thump impressively thereafter. In fact, things in the bass department might even be a bit too much of a good thing at times. Midrange is quite transparent. So, no complaints here.
Extras:
Disc one of this two-disc BD set contains a series of documentaries and featurettes. First up is "In the Crosshairs," a twenty-four-minute, behind-the-scenes, making-of segment with the usual filmmakers' comments about how they made the film and how good it is. Second is "Digital Hits," eleven minutes, focusing on the video game and its translation to the screen. Third is "Instruments of Destruction," fourteen minutes on the weaponry in the movie. Fourth is "Settling the Score," five minutes on the musical track. Fifth is a series of five deleted scenes, including a dreadful alternate ending, totaling about eight minutes. And sixth is a gag reel, five minutes.
Things wind down with twenty-four scene selections but no chapter insert; several trailers at start-up only for other Fox releases; a theatrical trailer for "Hitman"; English and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean subtitles.
Disc two contains what Fox describe as "a digital copy of 'Hitman' for portable media players." It allows you to transfer a copy of the movie to a PC, Mac, iPod, iPhone, or iTunes.
Parting Shots:
In its defense, "Hitman" isn't anywhere near as bad as 2006's "Smokin' Aces," a bloody awful mess about multiple hitmen that went with style over coherence, or 2002's "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever," which was also about chasing and shooting and things blowing up but was too dumb to recognize as a motion picture. So, at least "Hitman" sticks to the point and provides its fans with what they're after. The fact that it remains rather routine and tiresome, a paint-by-the-numbers affair, probably doesn't matter.
The version of the film I watched on Blu-ray is Unrated, meaning it contains an excess of violence, blood, brutality, nudity, and profanity. Emphasis on the violence.
Video:
This is one of those movies whose video quality is a little hard to judge because you don't know exactly what the director's intent was in choosing the look and color palette he did. The movie's aspect ratio is 2.35:1, and the Blu-ray video engineers used an MPEG4/AVC encode for the 1080 transfer. Now, what we see is an oddly dull, waxen appearance to the film and its characters, with hues intentionally toned down, probably to emulate the look of the video game. Sometimes the picture purposely smooths over details, and there is a smokey veil over many of the scenes, especially indoor shots. Dark areas of the screen are a tad murky, while a fine film grain actually aids the texture of the images. I'd say the transfer probably does justice to the original print, it's certainly clean enough and free of digital artifacts, but that doesn't necessarily qualify it as the best high-definition picture in the world.
Audio:
The disc's 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio leaves little one could desire. Except perhaps a greater use of the surrounds, given all the shooting and explosions that go on. Still, the audio does its job with commendable ease. The dynamic range and impact are impressive. Bass is deep and solid, evident from the opening titles' organ pedals and going on to thump impressively thereafter. In fact, things in the bass department might even be a bit too much of a good thing at times. Midrange is quite transparent. So, no complaints here.
Extras:
Disc one of this two-disc BD set contains a series of documentaries and featurettes. First up is "In the Crosshairs," a twenty-four-minute, behind-the-scenes, making-of segment with the usual filmmakers' comments about how they made the film and how good it is. Second is "Digital Hits," eleven minutes, focusing on the video game and its translation to the screen. Third is "Instruments of Destruction," fourteen minutes on the weaponry in the movie. Fourth is "Settling the Score," five minutes on the musical track. Fifth is a series of five deleted scenes, including a dreadful alternate ending, totaling about eight minutes. And sixth is a gag reel, five minutes.
Things wind down with twenty-four scene selections but no chapter insert; several trailers at start-up only for other Fox releases; a theatrical trailer for "Hitman"; English and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean subtitles.
Disc two contains what Fox describe as "a digital copy of 'Hitman' for portable media players." It allows you to transfer a copy of the movie to a PC, Mac, iPod, iPhone, or iTunes.
Parting Shots:
In its defense, "Hitman" isn't anywhere near as bad as 2006's "Smokin' Aces," a bloody awful mess about multiple hitmen that went with style over coherence, or 2002's "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever," which was also about chasing and shooting and things blowing up but was too dumb to recognize as a motion picture. So, at least "Hitman" sticks to the point and provides its fans with what they're after. The fact that it remains rather routine and tiresome, a paint-by-the-numbers affair, probably doesn't matter.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]22974[/release]