Released: April 2018(USA)
Director: Dominik Starck
Run Time: 87 Minutes
Distributor: Generation X Group Film
Genre: Action/Thriller
Cast:
Everett Ray Aponte: Lucas Kane
Don “The Dragon” Wilson: The Dragon
Erik Hansen: Joseph Kyler
Thomas Linz: Ronald Smith
Dominik Starck: Young Joseph
Carolina Rath: Nina
Really strong thrillers are hard to come by these days. Why? Often times, the films are not particularly well-written. Generally, they also tend to be very predictable and have fairly mundane and straight-forward endings that aren’t really provocative. The best thrillers can ratchet up the tension and have you on the edge of your seat. That’s the purpose of an effective thriller. Low-budget indie thrillers have a much harder time to get noticed because most people tend to go for the movies that hit theaters and not the ones that hit YouTube or VOD(video on demand). Sometimes, though, you get a movie that comes from another country that can really put the big movies to shame. While The Hitman Agency doesn’t quite hit the mark, it still manages to get by on its own charms.
The film opens as a possible drug dealer is brought to a fancy mansion somewhere in Eastern Europe. At the same time, a lone figure shows up and begins to start taking out guards. Another guy sees this lone figure and decides to take action. After he takes out his target, the one guy is given another job from a mysterious assassination organization: Taking out one of the organization’s best assassins. Little does this guy know that his target may be more than he appears to be. The story in this film is surprisingly interesting. Having an actual agency dedicated to assassination is not original, but how this film approaches something like that is a little different. You get an idea of the politics and the conniving that goes on behind the scenes of the business of assassination. Once the character of Joseph Kyler shows up, things get real interesting.
I’ll get to some of the action sequences and acting later on, but one of the issues that I would like to discuss with the film is the inclusion of Don “The Dragon” Wilson. Now, I’m a huge fan of The Dragon, as he is also one of my first interviews that I did for this site. My issue is that the marketing and poster seem to imply that he has a larger part in the film than he actually does. I’m not necessarily opposed to film-makers bringing in some big names to cameo in their films. This is a bit of a double-edged sword for me. While I certainly understand that having a name like Don “The Dragon” Wilson can bring attention to your film, I feel that your film needs to work on its own merits without advertising that someone like Don Wilson is in the film. If it’s a surprise cameo, that’s going to make people go, “Whoa, this guy’s in the film? Awesome!” Personally, I think Don’s cameo would have worked much better had it not been announced ahead of time. But that’s just me.
There is definitely some action in this film, and it’s surprisingly not bad. Some of these actors happen to have experience in the martial arts and that’s used to a fairly decent degree. Now, considering the film’s low-budget nature, some of the choreography is not as fluid or as quick as a lot of other films that I’ve seen, but it definitely has a degree of competency about it. Thankfully, there are no wires or over-use of special effects. The film is actually fairly well-paced and isn’t boring.
The acting isn’t all that bad, either. A number of these actors are German, but they do speak English quite well. There’s no dubbing used, so they’re using their own voices, which makes the film easier to deal with in that regard. While he’s only in the film for a few minutes, Don Wilson definitely makes the most of it playing himself. He does get a little bit of action, which is cool, but his cameo is actually pretty funny. Erik Hansen plays the aging Joseph Kyler, and I have to say, I really like what Mr. Hansen brings to the role. He gives the character a quiet, dignified, yet menacing quality that makes you wonder what this guy is going to do. Director Dominik Starck plays the younger Joseph in the flashbacks. I really like seeing the contrast between the two different versions of the character. Seeing how the character changes between present day and the flashbacks gives you an idea of who the character used to be, and I like how Mr. Starck a more energetic and straight-forward. It’s not very often you get to see the backstory of a main character in a film like this, especially for a low-budget film. I think that’s fantastic. It gives the film more depth and substance than one usually sees from films like this. Honestly, more effort was made in character development in this film than I’ve seen in a lot of big-budget theatrical releases.
The Hitman Agency, like any other film, isn’t perfect. It does suffer from some acting that really isn’t on the ball, and some characters chew the scenery more than they should. As I said before, some of the choreography is not quite as refined as some other stuff that I’ve seen, but it’s still decent. On the whole, though, I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad film. I think some choices in the marketing were kind of odd, but the overall film is pretty good for what it is. Would I buy this on DVD? Definitely. I think if you’re looking for a low-budget thriller that has more brains than your average thriller, The Hitman Agency might very well be worth checking out.
My Final Recommendation: 8/10. Definitely check this one out.