Guy Incognito attended the cast/crew screening of THE BIG HIT up in Toronto, and like the majority of reviews I am getting, he liked it. The trailer looks pretty good, and well let's just say I'm hoping it's worthy of the Woo producer credit it bears. Well here it is...
Hey Harry, this is Guy Incognito with a scoop from the Toronto cast/crew screening of the much anticipated John Woo-produced action juggernaut, "The Big Hit" starring Mark Wahlberg and Lou Diamond Philips. I managed to sneak into the theatre through an unused ventilation shaft in the ceiling and as far as I know, nobody noticed, except for those two poor saps I had to "take care of". All in a days work. Anyways, there was a screening last night in Toronto for the cast and crew and I managed to snag a seat after mingling with some film folk at the wine and cheese function before the screening. Mark Wahlberg's in town shooting "The Corruptor" right now so he managed to show up with a few of his friends. Dirk Diggler in person, very cool, though he kept grabbing at his crotch saying, "I'm a bright, shining star." over and over which got kind of tired after a while.
The movie? All I can say is, wow, I enjoyed it a LOT more than I thought I would. I'd seen a rough cut months back and I wasn't too impressed so my expectations were extremely low going in. After a skillful re-edit, though, the new version emerges leaner and meaner than its predecessor. Basically, the movie's about a crack team of hitmen that botch a kidnapping job and end up blaming Wahlberg's character for the whole mess. Sounds serious enough, but Lou Diamond's obnoxiously over-the-top villain and Wahlberg's insecure, sweet-natured hit man really add some comic punch to this action flick. The action scenes are cool and tightly edited with more than a dash of Hong Kong flavouring (after all, it's directed by Kirk Wong of "Crime Story" fame) and the movie overall is intense and fun as hell. Wahlberg's character, Melvin Smiley, just wants to be liked by people, see, so he's always getting pushed around and taken advatage of by his girlfriend, his fiance and even his scheming coworker Cisco (played by Lou Diamond). Mel's engaged to Pam (Christina Applegate) but she doesn't know he's a contract killer and her Jewish-American parents just happen to show up for dinner while Mel's trying to deal with a tied-and-gagged kidnapped girl running around the house. To add to the zaniness, Pam's folks don't know that Mel's not Jewish and if THAT isn't enough, Cisco and team of hitmen have been hired by his "employer" Paris (Avery Brooks) to kill Mel for kidnapping a girl who turns out to be Paris' Goddaughter! Whew. Basically, Mel's gotta kill the bad guys, get the girl back home safely, get in good with Pam's folks, get rid of a dead body AND bring back a copy of KING KONG LIVES to the video store so the clerk will stop harassing him. It's pretty obvious why Wahlberg's character is seen taking swigs of Maalox throughout the film, it's just one crazy situation after another (kinda like en episode of Fawlty Towers).
The supporting cast does a real good job too. I haven't seen Avery Brooks this badass in a long time. I'm talking Hawk from Spencer for Hire with a mean streak. Then there's Mel's soon-to-be father in law (Elliot Gould) whose drinking problem leads to some hilarious moments during a very intense standoff scene. The movie's violent, obnoxious, offensive, hilarious and FUN! I must say I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I think most people will too. The advertising capaign is huge (at least in Toronto) and seeing that it delivered the goods, this could be a reasonable hit for Tri Star. 7.5 outta 10 for The Big Hit.
