Review of The Big Hit (1998) by Mark Wahlberg Lover A — 04 Apr 2007

The Big Hit is ridiculous in the extreme, but that is surely part of its appeal - it's so completely over-the-top that you can't help but wonder if it's sending up the assassin movies it loosely resembles.

There are moments of pure gold in this movie; in particular, Lou Diamond Phillips's cheesy loser sidekick-turned-maniacal villain is priceless with his wacky facial expressions and that shirt! ("I'm pretty sure he's still alive" *shoots dead guy with weird expression and hand motions haha*) He's pretty consistently hilarious throughout this movie, even when he's being evil, although there is one oddly jarring moment which injects itself in the midst of the hilarious over-the-topness and kind of ruins the moment. Regardless, his high-jinks and goofball craziness are definitely the highlight of the movie, despite the rather clumsy attempt to make his character more sinister.

Mark Wahlberg plays doormat/star hitman Melvin Smiley to a T; you can't help but feel sorry for the guy, and even his name fits. The opening hit scene is improbable but made absolutely hysterical by Wahlberg's breakdancing/shooting moves - I mean, talk about an efficient way to assassinate someone eh? But we've already established that we're not watching this movie for its plausibility.

In fact, the entire cast of characters is a hilarious caricature, from the overtly Jewish girlfriend to the overdramatic boss man, which works really well - with the disappointing exception of the romantic thread with China Chow's Keiko character. I guess you have to throw it in there, and the movie manages to insert some moments of levity and ridiculousness in their hooking-up scenes (esp. the awesome chicken-stuffing bit!), but it's uneven and feels forced.

Nonetheless, the Big Hit is a LOT of fun, and a great movie to just laugh at and turn your brain off for. It doesn't try to make any huge inspiring statements or be too clever, and therein lies part of its goofy charm.