Hitman: Agent 47

Based on the popular video game franchise, this dreadful, mind-numbing reboot updates 2007's Hitman (starring Timothy Olyphant), with British actor Rupert Friend cast as the titular elite, elusive assassin, who is genetically engineered to be the perfect killing machine, and is identified only by the last two digits of the barcode tattooed on the back of his bald head. Suffering from a mysterious ailment and over-medicated with prescription pills, Katia (Hannah Ware) is on the run in Berlin, searching for her scientist father (Ciarán Hinds), who devised the first Agent program and is now in hiding. Although Katia is ostensibly clairvoyant, she doesn't realize that she's being targeted until she encounters John Smith (Zachary Quinto), who serves as her ostensible protector. Endowed with strength, speed, and stamina, stoic Agent 47 is after an evil Syndicate group who plan to unlock the secret of his past in order to create a super-military force with powers that will surpass his own. Incoherently scripted, filmmaker Aleksander Bach's Hitman: Agent 47 features a multitude of über-violent fight scenes and explosive car crashes (Audi must have paid mightily for product placement), but not much else. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include an “Ultimate Action: Staging the Fights” behind-the-scenes segment (7 min.), deleted scenes (4 min.), photo and poster galleries, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is “The Hit Counter” viewing option with pop-up info, as well as production featurettes (7 min.), a digital comic (2 min.) with a “making-of” (2 min.), and bonus digital and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an unremarkable action flick.] (S. Granger)