20131127: Thriller Review--Interview with a Hitman

Interview with a Hitman

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. British live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 96 minutes, action, thriller.
2. IMDB: 5.4/10.0 from 3,409 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' 45% liked it from 277 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 384,621 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Terry Bhandal.
6. Starring: Luke Goss as Viktor, Caroline Tillette as Bethesda, Stephen Marcus as Traffikant, Danny Midwinter as Sergei, Elliot Greene as young Viktor, Philip Witchurch as Tosca, Patrick Lyster as Xavier.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Growing up in Romania young Viktor joined organised crime to stay alive and pay off bills.  This segment was long, violent without purpose, dreary, boring, and hopefully relevant at some point.


2. Viktor hopes to align himself with a different crime group in the UK after being betrayed by his old group.  Lots of fighting and killing ensues.  He gets to meet some of his childhood acquaintances, and deal with an old issue or two.


3. Does he do better with this group?


3. Conclusions
1. Goss seems to be the king of the sequels: Hellboy II, Deathrace II, Deathrace III, Blade II, but none of the originals.  This film is a sequel.  Like the others, this film is just not as good as the original.
2. One line summary: Mud, in all categories.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Good some of the time, but wobbly more often. The sepia segments I could have done without entirely.  There were entirely too many minutes spent where no one is doing anything and the horrid music plays.


2. Sound: 5/10 Yikes.  The sound level of conversation tends to be too low, and has accompanying buzz/hiss.  This is not an asset.  Incidental music is jarring and irritating.


3. Acting: 5/10 Stale, cliched, boring.  I did not believe Luke Goss for a minute.  Since he is the centre of the piece, that is rather annoying.  The other actors do not make up for it.  Versus Daniel Craig, or Matt Damon, or Jason Statham, or Brad Pitt, or Gerard Butler, or even Aaron Eckhart, this guy is an emotionless, empty scarecrow to be blown away.  I cannot imagine him accomplishing anything useful.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Long on development, short on delivery.