Movie review of “Hitman: Agent 47”: The versatile Rupert Friend stars in this futuristic thriller about a genetically engineered assassin. Rating: 1.5 stars out of 4.
The versatile Rupert Friend (“Homeland,” “Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont”) heads the stellar cast of this deadly, shockingly repetitive futuristic thriller about a genetically engineered assassin — a mixture of 007 and “The Terminator” that just won’t stop.
As “Hitman: Agent 47” piles up the bodies and body parts, Schwarzenegger-style, it’s difficult to keep score. Who’s really dead and who’s pretending? The movie feels like a continuous loop in which shape-shifting characters put on all sorts of hide-and-seek disguises.
Friend seems at first to be the villain, but (spoiler alert) this may not be the case. Zachary Quinto asks for the trust of the heroine (Hannah Mare), and he seems to deserve it, for a while at least. But what led such gifted actors as Ciarán Hinds (“Munich”) and Thomas Kretchmann (“The Pianist”) to trust this script?
Movie Review ★½
‘Hitman: Agent 47,’ with Rupert Friend, Zachary Quinto, Hannah Mare, Thomas Kretchmann, Ciarán Hinds. Directed by Aleksander Bach, from a screenplay by Kyle Ward, Skip Woods and Michael Finch. 96 minutes. Rated R for sequences of strong violence and some language. Several theaters.
On the surface — and that’s all there is — it seems as pointless and gassy as a “Matrix” sequel. A speech invoking God as competition for creating destructive life-forms is particularly cringe-worthy.
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Coming at the end of a movie summer dominated by stunts and special effects, “Hitman: Agent 47” seems especially generic. Why not name the previous installments “Mayhem 1,” “Mayhem 2,” “Mayhem 3,” etc. By this measurement, “Agent 47” feels like “Mayhem 47.”