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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this movie is based on a violent video game about a professional assassin; not surprisingly, it includes lots of shooting, fighting, stabbing, falling, blood, and injured or dead bodies. Characters are ruthless and calculating, even the ones who are meant to be the "heroes." The movie's damsel in distress is hyper-sexualized -- there are repeated shots of her breasts (sometimes naked), legs, back, and pouty mouth. Language includes several uses of "f--k," plus other profanity. Explicit cocaine snorting in one scene, plus cigarette smoking and drinking.

Families can talk about what separates the "good guys" and the "bad guys" in this movie. Are they really that different? Why are some characters more sympathetic than others? How are video game-based characters different from characters developed for other media? What do video game-based movies tend to have in common? How do they usually compare to the games they're based on?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs

"I'd thank you if I wasn't so mad at you." Poor Nika (Olga Kurylenko) is confused by Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant), the titular hero of video game-based HITMAN. She has good reason: He's assigned to kill her, but then he decides to save her.

Nika is surely in need of rescue. A barely dressed and heavily made-up prostitute, she's employed and abused by the current Russian president, Mikhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen). Enter Agent 47. Trained from his childhood to be a professional killer by the odious "Organization," 47 suffers flashbacks suffused with hazy fluorescent light in which he and his fellow orphans look pale and worried as they learn to shoot and have bar-code tattoos buzzed into their scalps. As adults, the agents are good mercenaries, their exorbitant fees deposited directly into secret offshore accounts.

Even as his interactions with Nika apparently change his routine, 47 is all about the violence: Scene after scene (many rendered in slow motion and accompanied by "Ave Maria") shows him shooting, knifing, kicking, and fighting his opponents -- including the big bad Russians (Mikhail's brother is even more debauched) and very dedicated Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott). If Mike says it once, he says it four times: He's been chasing 47 for three years, "knows him better than anyone," and still can't keep up with 47's virtuoso scheming.

But for all his choreography, 47 remains awkward, especially around Nika. This might have made him sympathetic, but the film doesn't grant him much chance to speak, let alone put down his weapons. Dressed in a suit, his bald pate shiny under the harsh lights of railroad stations and hotel foyers, he tends to stand out, which repeatedly puts him on the run from authorities. True, he's good at what he does. But he also looks awfully tired.

Viewers might prefer other movies based on video games, including Doom (which stars the more charismatic The Rock) or Resident Evil, which has a more persuasive plot. Or try a better take on the super-trained-assassin plot, including TV's Dark Angel (available on DVD) and The Bourne Identity and its sequels.

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Content
		CS	adults	kids
Sexual Content Bare breasts in several scenes, plus visible nipples underneath a blouse. A female character also shows cleavage and lots of leg and wears very short skirts. She straddles the hero on a bed, but he resists her efforts to seduce him. The villain is flanked by women in skimpy outfits, showing more cleavage and skin. Agent 47 appears in the shower (nothing explicit).
Violence As the title suggests, violence is essentially nonstop, featuring explosions, guns, vehicular collisions, blood, broken glass, flying bodies and limbs, and broken furniture and walls (especially in hotels). Lots of bodies and lots of blood. Some point-of-view shots emulate a first-person shooter game. Weapons include assorted guns (automatics, handguns, vehicle-mounted guns), knives, chains, and an elaborate contraption whereby a victim is tied up in a tub with a gun aimed at him. In flashbacks, children are trained to shoot, fight, and kill.
Language Several uses of "f--k," plus various other profanity, including "s--t," "hell," and "prick."
Message
	Social Behavior The hero is a cold, highly trained assassin; the damsel in distress is a prostitute; government agents are competitive, angry, and aggressive.
	Commercialism The movie is based on a popular video game. Coca-Cola vending machine visible.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco Several characters smoke cigarettes, one man smokes a cigar. Some drinking (liquor and wine) in homes and clubs, once from a flask by someone who's visibly drunk. Villain's cohort snorts cocaine off a tray.

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