Mörderischer Irrtum

This hide and seek drama between the police with mob witnesses and the mob hit men who want to kill them, is played for maximum excitement and maximum stunt work in "Hit List". Even though Jan-Michael Vincent and Leo Rossi have top billing, it is Lance Henriksen and Charles Napier who carry the film. Rip Torn is the mob boss who sends an unhinged Henriksen after F.B.I. witness, Rossi. When the hit goes wrong and Vincent's son is kidnapped, all hell breaks loose. Seeing Lance Henriksen selling womens shoes is worth the ticket price by itself. Throw in some intense action, while throwing out most logic, and you pretty much have the idea. .................................. - MERK

Director William Lustig's HIT LIST opens with the most audacious, astonishing funeral scene ever filmed! The scene then switches to suburbia, where Jan-Michael Vincent stars as unassuming family man Jack Collins. After a mix-up causes a ruthless mob hitman (Lance Henriksen) to mistakenly arrive at Jack's house, tragedy ensues.

This all has to do with a certain mob boss (Rip Torn), who was trying to take care of a pair of informants. Now, Collins must rescue his son from the hitman's clutches, and avenge the loss he's suffered.

HIT LIST is a simple, but satisfying crime / revenge thriller from Mr. Lustig. While Vincent is adequate in his role, it's Henriksen's maniacal character who steals the show! The final showdown is one for the books!...

It's too bad that a solid cast of character actors working with a decent genre director can't quite improve upon, or merely disguise, their lead's mumbly, slurring performance. I remember seeing the film and wondering why so much of Jan-Michael Vincent's acting was dubbed, and why there were so many single shots of him by himself, the other actors being cut in for individual lines of dialogue, etc.

According to director William Lustig, Vincent was so inebriated they oftentimes had to just prop him up in some of the master shots and let the other actors "act around" the poor guy. One scene he's even lying down on a backyard bench.

If anything, it gives Lance Henriksen more room to chew up a lot of scenery, and then, of course, there's the stunts. Lots and lots of them. This is one movie that doesn't necessarily make you disappreciate dynamic car pursuits, but the tire squealing is enough to make you don headphones and listen to good heavy metal for the duration of the chases, especially the parking structure one.

All in all, it's a watchable movie. I especially like one of Vincent's decipherable lines (one that he repeats quite a few times) "But he's got my kid!!" because he says it with about as much despair as if he'd just ran out of cigarettes.

Loving father/ ex-army hardass Jack Collins (Jan-Michael Vincent) and mob witness Frank DeSalvo (Leo Rossi) hunt down lethal underworld shooter Chris Caleek after he mistakenly kidnapped Collins son. Jan-Michael Vincent, Lance Henriksen, Charles Napier and Rip Torn are on electric form in director 'Maniac' Lustig's gritty, action-packed, hugely underrated 80s gangster shoot 'em up 'Hit List'. Grindhouse god Lustig really delivers the grisly goods, the brutal fight scenes, bloody executions are thrillingly intense, and Henriksen's hardcore hitman Caleek is a truly memorable savage! I love a violent L. A. Action thriller, and 'Hit List' is a definite keeper!

Film-maker William Lustig had made a sleeper in the shape of "Relentless" in 1989, but also that year he did the worthwhile 80s low-budget revenge thriller "Hit List" which kind of went by unnoticed between the "Maniac Cop" features. A mafia boss Luca organises for his hit-man to get rid of a witness Frank who's under police custody, but the guy takes out the wrong people and kidnaps the wrong son. The husband Mark comes home to find his friend dead, his pregnant wife injured and his son gone. The FBI wants Luca to believe he has the witness's son, so their witness can testify, but this means putting Mark behind bars until that happens. Overhearing the plans, Mark flees and kidnaps Frank in the hope of tracking down his son.

"Hit List" is a gritty urban action thriller that is as systematic as you can get, but director Lustig does a competently slick job and the mouth-watering cast he had at his disposal simply aimed up. Jan-Michael Vincent, Lance Henriksen, Leo Rossi, Charles Napier, Rip Torn, Ken Learner and Harold Sylvester. Henriksen is ultimately unforgettable as the deadly hit-man, who also happens to be a shoe salesman by trade. Would you dare ask for a discount? Not when you see this guy in his grove. Vincent goes about things in very hardened manner and Rossi is in good form as the humorous wise-guy. An excellent Napier gives a crusty turn as the FBI agent and Torn gives his Mafia boss plenty of fire and weight. The cast are excellent and they needed to be, as the pulpy plot was too basic and somewhat unspectacular even with its calculative suspense and tough brutality (a shootout in a kid's laser zone, where everyone just goes about their business?!). It doesn't entirely go all-out, as the hardy script does take its time for the character's to some degree open up with a bit of drama. Lustig's taut style suited the inventively agile photography and the go-for-broke stunt-work and stunt-car driving provided some fatal excitement in its absurd climax.

"Hit List" is a gratuitously neat little action joint, which doesn't ask much of your time.

"Maybe it's your world, but it's my kid".