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  Matt
  
Willis
The Big Hit
USA, 1998
[Kirk Wong]
Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond-Phillips, Avery Brooks, China Chow
Action / Comedy
  
Bizarrely enjoyable Hong Kong-style actioner which impressively blends exquisite action scenes with a sense of humour which can only be described as darkly manic. Focusing on the day job exploits of professional hitmen it treads territory much trod before yet still comes out as rather original in its own nonsensical way. Wahlberg plays himself (AGAIN) as nice guy murderer Melvin Smiley, who somehow manages to hide his job from his fiancee whilst simultaneously carrying on a relationship with a local gold digger.

When he is pursuaded by colleague Cisco (Diamond-Phillips) to go on a none-sanctioned kidnapping he reluctantly agrees and goes through with his part of the plan, hiding the victim Keiko, the daughter of a billionaire, in his mistress's house. However, what the hitmen have failed to realise is that the supposed billionaire is actually bankrupt, having produced the most expensive film in history with himself in the lead role. Also, Keiko is the god-daughter of their boss, the vengeful Paris, who immediately tasks the amazed Cisco to find her. Naturally he decides to save his own skin and puts the blame solely on Melvin, setting off a crazed hunt for the missing girl.

The  thing about
The Big Hit that sets it apart from other comedy actioners is undoubtedly the fact that it does both very well, rather than focusing on one in particular. We have bullets flying, explosions, er, exploding, cars being crashed, and all with the style which is now accustomed of former Hong Kong directors such as Wong. Wahlberg is well cast and shows that he can do a good job in a role which asks for him to just be quiet and unassuming, and much humour is wrung out of this fact. His desire for everyone to like him is constantly a source of amusement due to the nature of his job, and the scene with his fiancee Pam and her parents, which descends into extreme violence when Cisco crashes the party, is quite brilliant.

Diamond-Phillips revels in what will no doubt be his finest ever role, playing Cisco as a crazed madman covering his own ass and screwing his supposed friends in the process. Almost every scene he is in, especially the quick-cut ones during the films initial action extravaganza, are hilarious and again show the dark vein that runs throughout. There is little chance of this being considered for any posthumous awards, but as an example of what can be achieved in the filed of throwaway Hollywood actioners you can't do much better.
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