Formulaic and predictable ... (spoilers)
I purchased this DVD recently for dirt cheap...the plot seemed very promising and (according to the box) had a good-overall standing with critics and festivals. It looked like a "sleeper cult hit".
The "sleeper" part is correct, but for all the wrong reasons.
One of the main problems was the story. Just mix the plots of John Woo's THE KILLER and Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO, and that was the gist of this picture. I could have forgotten about that (because the 2 latter titles were great films), but the main character was never given much to work with, always coming across as pissed off, never having a sense of humor, squatting in an abandoned building (despite a career that's supposed to be very lucrative) and he has an idiosyncratic penchant for gum and pita bread.
We're supposed to empathize with him because he is dying and doesn't include children as part of his "targets", but he's still a bad guy, works for bad people, and he is taken so seriously that I simply didn't care as to what eventually happened (Shot to death by police snipers, but this will come as no surprise once you soak up the first 1/2 hour of the movie ... the "hitman with a heart of gold" even befriends the cop who is chasing him. Sound familiar?)
Roger Ebert gave this a pretty high rating, but unlike other movies he over- analyzes, he didn't shed any clear insight on this one.
Your Thoughts? I'd probably watch this again if there was more than meets the eye under the surface, but for the time being it's going to collect a lot of dust.