NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Ploydsge just watch it!

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

itamarscomix Those only familiar with Stephen Frears more recent and audience-friendly work (High Fidelity, The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents) may not know what to make of The Hit, but it's a masterpiece deserving of much more attention than it usually gets. With the distinction of being Tim Roth's first big-screen role, as well as starring veterans Terence Stamp and John Hurt, it's a surprise that the film isn't better known, but despite the shiny cast and the subject matter that could have made a blockbuster for Tarantino or Guy Ritchie, The Hit is not an easy watch. Frears took a premise right out of the crime drama genre, and turned it into a poetic road film, a character study and a thesis in existential philosophy.It works incredibly well thanks to the chemistry between the three leads, all excellent actors in top form who deliver very memorable performances, and thanks to Frears' sensitive treatment. The Hit is a simple, minimalistic film, and it's at its best when it's nothing but three men on the road together reacting to one another and to their own fears. The mob-movie framework gives the story its meat and its context but doesn't dominate it - at its heart it's all about the characters. It's an unusual, striking and effective film that, at its best, rivals Reservoir Dogs in its brutal and honest dissection of honor among thieves and the relationships between violent people.

Rockwell_Cronenberg A prime example of the old adage that less is more, Stephen Frears' The Hit starts off with a simple premise and builds from there with the use of well-developed, brilliantly acted characters. Willie Parker (Terence Stamp) is a gangster who sells his pals down the road in order to get off free, but ten years later one of those guys is out of prison and sends his men Braddock and Myron (John Hurt and Tim Roth) to go and collect Willie. All of this is taken care of within the first fifteen minutes and the film at large is the three of them on the road, driving from Spain to Paris in order to bring Willie to his inevitable fate. They're joined along the way by Maggie (Laura Del Sol), a young and exotic companion of an associate they cross paths with early on.It's a very simple idea, but the film succeeds so admirably in keeping the tension high between the three men, confining the action mostly to within the car or nearby it. Willie knows his fate and he doesn't try to escape it, so instead of the usual distractions of chases and struggles, we get to witness interactions between the three on their way to his fate. There's an existentialist journey the film takes us down, as Willie seems resigned to his death and doesn't try to fight it. This presents an interesting query to Braddock and especially Myron, curious as to why he seems so serene with death around the corner. Willie seems to enjoy himself on their trip, whereas Braddock is all business and just going about his job.John Hurt delivers a terrifying performance here, mostly hidden behind Braddock's sunglasses and really diving in to the character to send chills through the audience. The contrast between him and Stamp's self-reflective work is fascinating, especially when combined with the wildly energetic Roth. This was Tim Roth's first film and he explodes on the screen, a wild animal of pure energy, eating up every moment and running away with the entire picture. Much like Roth himself, Myron is on his first assignment and his reactions to the opposing nature of Braddock and Willie drive a lot of the resonating themes of the film. Del Sol provides an erotic, passionate rift in the group dynamic and of course it's the woman who ends up being the thing that gives them the most grief, rather than the man they are supposed to kill.Stephen Frears has long been a favorite director of mine and most of that is due to his versatility. He can go from this kind of hard, cool British pulp gangster movie to doing a wildly erotic period piece like Dangerous Liaisons as if it was any other job. He's one of the most diverse directors in the modern age, but he always manages to tackle his films with a deep precision. The Hit is yet another example of his skills as a director and, thanks in part to the excellent cast and script by Peter Prince, I'd say it's the best film of his career.

Milan This film holds 7.0 rating on IMDb, so even I sensed something rotten in it's synopsis I decided to try it out. What a waste of 100 minutes. First of all, the 80's were not a good decade for crime and thriller genre. Most of them, in those days were badly done with silly plot (if they had any), so there are very few that can stand out, and even if they were good they are still not very good. The Hit, however suffers from everything that made silly crime pictures silly. It has poor character development, improbable plot and wasn't written or directed in a decent manner, and when you have such shortcomings the acting doesn't help. Stephen Frears often tried to emulate French new wave in English style film making and the two don't match.Let's start at the beginning. Terence Stamp is 10 years in hiding because he testified against some of his former partners in crime. He hides in Spain, of all places. He is finally caught up with, and than first kidnapped by a group of silly looking Spanish thugs, just do be driven away some distance to the two hit man that are supposed to deal with him. These two are John Hurt, who is supposed to be hard boiled, stone cold killer, and Tim Roth (in his first role) as the devil's apprentice. They don't kill Stamp right away, they first dispose of the "three Amigos", they shouldn't have hired in the first place, and then, they are driving Stamp to Paris, because one of the buddies he testified against wants to confront him. OK that's possible. But even with Stamp being such a dangerous figure that they had to hire four guys to overpower him, they don't tie him down, don't incapacitate him in any way, and drive around with him, like he's one of the buddies. Stamp doesn't object and is happily going to Paris to be shot, not using any of a half a dozen chances, these "professionals" offer for him to escape. Than it appears that Tim Roth is just a school boy bully, making the idea of big crime boss teaming him up with a hard core hit man like John Hurt, even more improbable, especially on an important job like that. But than John Hurt is not so hard core himself, he spends twenty minutes of the movie, killing or not killing the totally surplus Australian, played by Bill Hunter, whose only purpose in this film is to introduce lovely Laura Del Sol, his mistress (who he says is 15, but she looks more like 25), and whose role in the story and acting capabilities suggest that she was offered the part, solely on the basis of being the director's or producer's mistress at the time. After much deliberation, Hurt kills the Australian but takes along his mistress for no apparent reason. Than he wants to kill her but Roth with his "subtle ways" convince him not to, so even she kicks him, bites him and scratches him through the entire movie, he stays true to that deeply buried human side of him.Than you have plain idiotic scenes, like when Hurt and Roth lock the car from the outside, trying to prevent people inside, from getting out?!?! Anyway the movie drags on. Tim Roth falls asleep, guarding Terence Stamp with his gun on his chest, and Stamp just waits there watching the waterfall. Than the whole shamble of a plot comes to the point where everything we've seen in the last hour and 20 minutes just goes out through the window. Let's recapitulate, the whole point in not killing Stamp right away (except for having a movie) is to take him to Paris, so his former partner is to have a last word with him. And the whole point in him not running away is that he is prepared to die, saying "It's just a moment. We're here. Then we're not here. We're somewhere else... maybe. And it's as natural as breathing. Why should we be scared?" But my friends, here is where the plot twists, Hurt kills the man while still in Spain, and we ask why bother and drive around for days, he could have done it in the first 15 minutes, and than contrary to his philosophy Stamp is very afraid of being killed, so we ask again why didn't he run, and he had plenty chance. Roth gets killed too, but he shouldn't be in the movie at all, and Del Sol, well she's promised a role in this film purely for romantic (read sexual) reasons, so she stays alive again, even she attacked Hurt for the 15th time in the movie. He killed all the others, but not her, she must have maximum screen appearance. The movie was made on a shoe string budget and it shows, but when you have no story and cardboard characterizations, it shows even more.And yes Fernando Ray appears and goes through the movie as the guest star, having a single audible line of dialog. Awful

lost-in-limbo Ten years ago Willie Parker testified in court against some of his criminal buddies and ever since then, has been waiting for them to settle the score while hiding out in Spain. Soon enough his tracked down by two hit men, the slick professional Braddock and his raw rookie Myron. Who plan to take him back to Paris to meet up with those he done in, but on their trip there they stop off at a Madrid apartment that includes an unplanned kidnapping of a young Spanish girl, Maggie. Through the trip Parker's pondering manner starts getting on the pairs' nerves and the feisty Maggie makes matters even worse. Nothing is truly going to plan with these constant distractions and the Spanish police are hot on their trail. I wasn't expecting to like "The Hit" as much as I did. But came away really enjoying and thinking highly of this oddity, after knowing nothing about it to begin with. It was neat blind purchase (well, it only cost $2), which really did pay off. This colourfully kooky British crime feature has a premise that likes play mind games by breezily building upon the animated characters and random situations they find themselves stuck in. It's about them finding their feet and coming to terms that death might be around the corner. Nothing to fear in something you shouldn't be afraid off. Peter Prince's tautly fleshed out script has real sensitivity about it and goes down well with the simple road trip storyline. While rather talkative, the dialogue driven outing has a lyrically deeper underbelly, where personalities clash with amusingly engaging and wittily sly results. Action is little, but it doesn't suffer from it and when it unfold, its intensely drawn up. Director Stephen Frears paints a poetically subdued feel to it with such freshly assured and suave direction. He truly sets up some beautiful visions without losing any of that brutal edge when called for (the surprising climax takes the cake). Mick Molloy's fetchingly sublime photography-work incorporates the alluringly picturesque backdrop of Spain with elegant scope. He even frames diverse scenes with inspired shots that have you in awe. Eric Clapton plugs away for the sweepingly airy opening title and Paco de Lucia stirringly upbeat Spanish flavour to the music score kicks up the energy levels and unpredictable vibe. The technical side of the production is pretty top-draw and sufficiently done. The performances are all marvellous in crafting out their characters and feeding off each other with believable chemistry. An outstandingly novel John Hurt plays the professionally cool, tough as nails hit-man Braddock with such cold venom. Character actor Tim Roth (in his film debut) is brilliant in a total opposite persona as a young clueless, hot-wired rookie Myron getting a little too attached to their captivates. Terence Stamp stands-out in his turn of the lively accepting Willie Parker, who throws up some words of wisdom along the way and strangely becomes fixated with his closing destiny. Laura del Sol dashingly fine as the strong willed Maggie who adds the sparks. Also showing up in short, but potent roles is Aussie actor Bill Hunter and Fernando Rey playing an officer closing on their tails. "The Hit" is a focused, well thought-out production that I believe to be perfect across the board. Some people might find it to lead nowhere, but seductively enterprising is what comes to my mind.