Hitman: Agent 47, which hits theaters on Friday (August 21), successfully challenges Hollywood’s notion of the damsel in distress. Katia (Hannah Ware), who was leading a dull and detached ...

The same formula is at work in “Hitman: Agent 47,” a stylized shoot-em-up based on a video game, of which no previous knowledge is required. Rupert Friend plays the titular character: an elite ...

Hitman: Agent 47 delivers on those expectations, half-heartedly rebooting a franchise that didn't need to be revived in the first place (Timothy Olyphant's version came and went in 2007).

Smith shows up in Katia’s life just in time to save her, multiple times. What a guy. Agent 47 and Smith engage in a number of shootouts and hand-to-hand combat sequences.

And indeed, this is how Hitman's Agent 47 was initially depicted: a clinical killer so precise in approach that he can't even afford to have a hair on his head.

This year’s “Hitman 3” completed the “World of Assassination” trilogy. And, though Agent 47 operates as a lone wolf for a majority of the series, that changed in the latest installment.

The same formula is at work in “Hitman: Agent 47,” a stylized shoot-em-up based on a video game, of which no previous knowledge is required.

LOS ANGELES — The idea of the high-tech, emotionless super-soldier is so popular in movies, it’s practically a convention. The “Terminator” and “Bourne” franchises, and even last year’s animated “Big ...