Have you ever seen that Girls Town movie on MST3K featuring Mel Torme as a juvenile delinquent and Paul Anka cameoing as a choirboy who serenades a young harlot with the "Ave Maria"? I only ask because every time I hear the fucking "Ave Maria", I think of that movie.
So color me impressed that the trailer for Xavier Gens’s Hitman can make use of that extremely loaded piece of music and still get me excited to see the movie. Actually, I’m a sucker for teasers that eschew dialogue in favor of mood and imagery, and this 1.40 spot does that pretty well. A hint of gunplay, an even smaller hint of sex, plenty of convincing, bald-headed butt-kicking from Timothy Olyphant… do you really require anything more from a film called Hitman? Aside from Tom Berenger?
As I wrote a while back, Skip Woods’s screenplay for Hitman lays the groundwork for an above-average action flick; it’s not going to reinvent the genre or anything, but it’s also not going to be a brain dead succession of goofy action sequences ala The Transporter movies (when it comes to that kinda horseplay, give me Crank). Our pals at JoBlo are hosting the trailer, so go on over, take a look and tell me it doesn’t momentarily drive Paul Anka from your thoughts. (By the way, the use of "Ave Maria" isn’t just for show; there’s a basis for it in the screenplay.)