ASSASSINATION TANGO

Hit-man saga misses the target.

Running time: 114 minutes. Rated R (violence, profanity). At the Angelika, the Beekman, the Chelsea, others.

‘ASSASSINATION Tango,” Robert Duvall’s third feature as a director, tries to meld his real-life fascination with the tango to a tired and predictable yarn about an aging Coney Island hit man who’s seduced by the dance’s charms while laying in wait for a victim.

Duvall is quite good as John J., a hair-trigger former hairdresser with a ponytail and a penchant for dance whose girlfriend, Maggie (an underused Kathy Bates), has no idea what his frequent trips abroad as a “security consultant” actually involve.

John dotes on Maggie’s 10-year-old daughter – “the daughter I never had” – and promises he’ll return from his latest mob contract in time for the girl’s birthday party.

But unforeseen complications delay him for weeks in Buenos Aires, and John becomes smitten with Manuela (Luciana Pedraza, Duvall’s gorgeous real-life companion and a sizzling screen presence), whom he engages as his tango instructor.

The most interesting parts of the movie are the long, sexy and well-staged dance sequences, some of them involving a very nimble Duvall.

Much less compelling are the machinations involving the locals – one played by a tired-looking Ruben Blades – who are paying Duvall to knock off a retired general.

“Assassination Tango” is overlong and far less engaging than Duvall’s earlier “Angelo My Love” and “The Apostle.”