 |
|||
 |
 |
||
 | |||
 | |||||||||||
|
|
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips. Released to DVD on October 20, 1998. ![[Photo]](/photos/bighit1.jpg) Every now and then, my brain just says, "That's it, I'm outta here for today," and leaves. Mostly this occurs right after deadline, after I've been working for a week non-stop. I will stumbled into the video store and consequently start to look for some mindless entertainment; a movie that won't mind that my brain is down on Clark Street, drinking heavily, while I am at home, sacked out on the couch, barely conscious. Spying Markie Mark (Mark Wahlberg) and several other guys holding guns on the box cover of The Big Hit, I thought I'd found the right movie for my condition. Unfortunately though, this wannabe Hong Kong action flick was so poorly crafted that it fails even as a mindless action flick, which is pretty damn hard to do. Wahlberg stars as a stupid, top-of-the-line hitman (two qualities you often hear together), who has decided to give up his mercenary ways after one last hit. His friends, three lackeys played by Bokeem Woodbine, Antonio Sabato, and Lou Diamond Phillips, convince Wahlberg to participate in a plan to kidnap a wealthy, Japanese businessman's daughter. Wahlberg, being stupid, begrudgingly goes along with his friends' plan despite the fact that he is not especially enamored of the idea in the first place. The four men kidnap the girl and then learn (because they are all stupid) the wealthy, Japanese businessman is a) bankrupt, b) old friends with a well-connected crime boss, and c) very pissed off. The kidnapping hits the crapper and, in another poorly thought out plan to escape trouble, Phillips attempts to frame Wahlberg for the kidnapping eliciting lots of kicking and punching between the two. Wong has quite a knack for filming action sequences, it is just regrettable that The Big Hit, despite all appearances to the contrary, doesn't have many of these. While I predict a solid career for Wong as a second unit director, I don't see many feature films for him or Ramsey in the immediate future. In retrospect, it seems that my brain made the right decision to leave when it did.
|
| |||||
![[Photo]](/photos/bighit2.jpg)
The trouble with this film, other than the 'crime gone wrong' story that would have felt out of place on an episode of Full House, is screenwriter Ben Ramsey's choppy script. The Big Hit opened with the four hitmen systematically and logically taking out a high-class drug dealer who was infringing on their clients territory. The action was superb; the gun fights were brilliant, the way Wahlberg rolled down a railing to evade bullets was refreshing, and Wahlberg's bungee jumping off the top of an exploding building was just fun to see. I nodded in approval at The Big Hit, and eagerly awaited the rest of the long, well-crafted action sequences the film had to offer. My enthusiasm turned to disgust as I had to wait over an hour to see another shoot-out, and until the films finale to see anything that vaguely resembled the opening scenes action. The plot material filling the middle of the film is nothing much beyond filler drivel either. There are some half-hearted attempt at comedy involving a body in Wahlberg's garbage cans and a neighbors dog, and Christina Applegate's attempts to break-up with Wahlberg, but the dialogue was so inane and flat, and Che-Kirk Wong's style of direction so decidedly unfunny that it barely seemed worth the effort to keep my eyes open.