Reviews: Hitman & Enchanted

Nothing says family togetherness like going to the movies over holiday weekends. I kicked off the past weekend with a bang by going to see Hitman.

Hitman is about orphans who are trained to be assassins. The hero, Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant, Live Free or Die Hard), is one of those orphans who finds himself being hunted by ‘the organization’. Agent 47 befriends a target (Olga Kurylenko) in order to stop whoever is trying to kill him.

After seeing the trailer for Hitman, I really wanted to see it. I wasn’t aware that it was a movie based off a video game until after my friends informed me. With that knowledge, I was a little weary of spending the money to see it. I have seen video game movies before and they always seem to fall short of my expectations. Hitman seems to work well as a movie. It has a decent plot and reminded me of a cross between The Saint and the Bourne trilogy.

Overall, it was a fun movie to go see. The fight scenes were well choreographed and the dialogue wasn’t overly hokey. I also really enjoyed the musical score. It was like another character in the movie. I could see this movie branching into a franchise, but don’t know how far they could take it. I wouldn’t recommend taking young kids to it. It’s pretty violent and there is some nudity as well.

With it being a particularly long weekend, I also went to see Enchanted. With the exception of the Pixar franchise, I have felt that Disney movies have been falling flat since Tarzan in 1999. Enchanted intrigued me because it was a new concept and approach by Disney.

Enchanted begins in the fairy tale world (aka, animated world) where a young maiden, Giselle (Amy Adams, Talledega Nights) falls in love with Prince Edward (James Marsden, X-Men). They begin to plan ‘happily ever after’ when Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), Prince Edward’s stepmother tricks Giselle into going into the real world. Lost and confused, Giselle befriends a little girl, Morgan, and her father, Robert (Patrick Dempsey) who offer to help Giselle.

I thought that this would be a lame attempt by Disney to revive a dying franchise, but Enchanted exceeded my expectations. It was a cute movie that made me feel like a little kid again. I was on the edge of my seat rooting for the good guys and was impressed with the story. Disney brought back the talents of Alan Menken (composer, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) and Stephan Schwartz (lyricist, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame) for the film’s score, which is a standout in the Disney repertoire. Enchanted is good for the whole family. I would suggest it if you are young, or just young at heart.