The Hitman
After surviving an attempt on his life by his former partner, officer Cliff Garrett (Norris) exacts revenge on those who wronged him by going undercover as a hit man. He works to gain the reputation and trust needed in order to be accepted by the burgeoning Seattle-area criminal underworld, but it is all done in order to take it down from within.
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- Cast:
- Chuck Norris , Alberta Watson , Michael Parks , Al Waxman , Salim Grant , Ken Pogue , Marcel Sabourin
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Reviews
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Very disappointing...
Expected more
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Shot and near fatally wounded by his corrupt former partner, a police officer reemerges as a mob contract killer; he might be working undercover or he might be trying to getting to revenge, with things becoming clearer as the film progresses. If this sounds like a confusing plot description, it is because the film is arguably too complex for its own good; the action scenes are generally well done and Chuck Norris even turns in a decent performance as he mentors a local kid and gets to utter some witty quips, but these highlights are hard to appreciate as the film pitches Norris so deep undercover that it is hard to say where his agenda lies. What can be made out from the film is nevertheless often entertaining. There are many atmospheric nighttime shots and Joel Derouin's jazzy music score is perfectly moody. There is also a thrilling sequence set in the snowbound backwoods of Canada, where half the film is set, and the final few scenes are pretty powerful, over-the-top as the actions of vengeful Norris might well be. Salim Grant also deserves a special mention as the local boy who Norris befriends. There is a particularly touching scene in which Norris confesses to being scared of bullies when he was a kid too, and Grant manages to be wide-eyed and genuinely taken with Norris throughout without the film ever getting mushy or sentimental in this regard.
This time Chuck Norris stars as an undercover cop, presumed dead after his partner betrayed him by shooting him multiple times during a routine sting operation. He infiltrates an Italian mob organized in Seattle. Meanwhile, two other criminal organizations, the Arabs and French mobs, desire to operate exclusively in Seattle. Well as Danny Grogen, Chuck's job is to align Andre Lacombe(Marcel Sabourin), the French mobster working in Vancouver, with Marco Luganni(Al Waxman)so that the police can nab them together..but Grogan's old nemesis, Del(Michael Parks)is working with the Arab mob and this will make things particularly difficult. Del is an opportunist and uses Marco(..who believes Del is on his side) to take out Lacombe, but Grogan has other plans for him. When Del attempts to blow up Grogan's neighbor's boy, it gets REALLY personal.Despite what seems like a complex story really is still your basic tale of revenge and retribution. Grogen is the only, except the little black boy he befriends, character who isn't a dirtbag so when he shoots somebody or beats some scumbag to the pulp, you root for him if just by default. I found it amusing that Chuck not only has one mob to contend with, but three! I enjoyed how Chuck's Grogen could just walk up on his adversaries, often with the result being some mob goon laid on his back, bleeding or seriously harmed. My favorite sequence has Chuck wiping out a dinner table full of Arabs in their own restaurant. There's a ton of mob violence with men from each organization setting the others up, with bullets riddling bodies. And, boy, does Grogen get him some of Del! That's quite a BLAST of a finale! The film finds time to include a sub-plot where Chuck helps out a little black boy being bullied by white racists, for which he teaches him the fundamentals of defending yourself. As you'd expect, Chuck lands a pretty loud punch to the bastard father's face(..he's your typical thuggish, foul racist white trash monster, abusive towards his son if the kid doesn't bully those supposedly inferior), breaking his nose in the process to the delight of the audience, I'm sure."The Hit-man" isn't exactly up to par with Chuck's 80's stuff, but it delivers plenty of violence and Norris does get to conduct his usual "one man army" shtick, blowing apart the legs, chests, and faces of mobsters in the warehouse climax with a small shotgun, as all three organizations buck for supremacy, falling short due to their inabilities to "share turf". Michael Parks, who many recognize as a consistent face in QT / Rodriguez joints, has a small but pivotal part as the slimy, vulgar antagonist who(..as many villains in these films often do)leaves Norris alive when he had him right where he wanted him. This will come back to bite him right on the ass. To provide motivation for fans of ultra-violence, a victim is rope-tied to a chair, hung outside a window, with a bomb that detonates exploding his body into millions of pieces!
Given the genre, this movie is excellent. If you're in the mood for a romantic film or a slow foreign flick, skip it: if you're a real man, watch it.Chuck Norris does, as usual, a very good job, but the real key to the movie is the intricate plot. Things keep getting more and more convoluted as the movie proceeds, and the dramatic ending, while foreseeable, is action-packed.A side note: the cinematography, especially the night scenes, is masterful. If you're watching the movie with the lights off, you get the full effect. The use of darkness provides a perfect atmospheric for certain scenes.Great for a night you want to watch a kick-ass man movie.
This is a damn good Chuck Norris movie. Of course that doesn't make it a movie you could recommend to just anyone as "good," but if you look at it as part of its own sub-genre--say the Chuck Norris/Jean Claude Van Damme/Stephen Segal sub-genre--then it is pretty damn good in comparison. And I had never heard of it before today! The story leaves much to be desired, but this is the kind of low-budget action movie they just don't make any more: slick and goofy, crass and sentimental, moral and ultraviolent, "funny bad" and just plain funny--all at the same time. But the standout feature is definitely the great Michael Parks. Just as he did in the similarly obscure Charles Bronson flick "Death Wish V: The Face of Death," and in his "From Dusk Until Dawn" cameo, Parks takes charge of every scene he's in and simply walks away with the movie. Why hasn't this brilliant actor been given leading roles? He has been so fascinating to watch in everything I've seen him, especially in his later years.