Killer Force

Charlie Pike is an ex-Government agent turned contract killer. He kills on behalf of lawyer Peter Mahew who is part of a committee of lawyers who hand out their own version of justice. Pike takes a job from Mahew to help out a family friend, the beautiful Jordan. However when Pike completes the contract he falls for Jordan, a situation that leads him into a double crossing situation where deception leads to murder.

When the wonderfully creative people in the TVM business sit down to really push the envelope on a project they really go for it. Imagine the planning meeting for this! `hey, lets make a thriller about a hitman who is ruthless, but really a good guy who is sensitive and listens to classical music', `yeah – and lets have him be kind but tough – and trying to get out of the business except this one last job'. After that how else can they make it really stand out – well lets shoot it all in blues and shadow of TVM noir and have the usual jazz soundtrack to add `atmosphere' and `mood'.

Nothing in the plot or film really manages to be different from any other TVM you'd see and it fails to engage simply for this reason. On top of the cliché ridden film we have an obvious bit of casting with Fahey and Butler (neither strangers to this tvm stuff). The only surprise was Coburn who I imagine has let stuff like this slip off his CV since he got his Oscar.

Overall this is so very predictable and clichéd that it really fails to inspire even a little bit of interest. We have every staple of the thriller/noir TVM – soft porn, jazz music, unimaginative direction – it's all here. It's not a bad film, just a very flat one that has all the appeal of a mass produced industrial production when compared to something clever or inspired.

This movie is slow and tedious. But thats only at the first viewing of it. The Story is actually a fun and original one. Yancy Butler's Real life ex-fiancé (Jeff Fayhey lawnmoverman ) Plays charlie Pike a Hit man who takes a Job as a favor for Jordan Henning ( Yancy Butler ) the rich widow of a mob boss. But Jordan has something more sinister up her sleave then the protection she is asking pike for. The acting in this film is surreal and eerie. Fahey gives a oddly quiet though not bad performance of the hit-man falling for the possibly deadly Butler. He is fit in the role. This was Yancy's first film. She does an excellent job. Still though today this film lookes and sounds dated. It didn't stand the test of time...but its still for a good viewing every now and then.

Think of a cliché, any cliché, in a movie about a professional hit men getting tangled in a web of revenge. Thought about one? It's in this movie.

The leading star Jeff Fahey plays the pro-hit-man and as you could've guessed, he's the sexy, strong silent type hit-man who hardly speaks more then 3 sentences in a conversation. ("I only kill people who deserve to die...") There are flashbacks when someone looks at a picture, there is a client falling in love with the hit-men, etc. etc. etc. The conversations in the movie are the stereotype dialogues you expect in a b-movie and the police-officers investigating the murders just seem to be working on their first case ever.

I give it a 4, for there are martial arts movies about revenge that are worse then this, but this movie comes close...

Despite the fact of never even having heard about this 1993 action thriller titled "The Hit List", I still opted to watch it solely because it was a movie that I hadn't already seen.

Writer Reed Steiner put together an okay script. It wasn't spectacular or outstanding, but it proved to be watchable enough for what it was. But in all honesty, the movie was a bit bland and mediocre.

The movie actually has a surprising amount of familiar faces on the cast list. Aside from leading actor Jeff Fahey, there is the likes of Yancy Butler, James Coburn, Michael Beach, Sherman Howard, Jeff Kober and Erick Avari. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

For an action thriller, I will say that the movie was a bit on the stale side. Sure, it was a watchable movie, but hardly an outstanding or noteworthy action thriller. In fact, there are far, far better action thrillers readily available.

While I did sit through the movie in its entire 97 minute runtime, I was only mildly entertained. It definitely isn't a movie that warrants more than a single viewing, as the storyline simply isn't layered enough to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of director William Webb's 1993 movie "The Hit List" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Yancy Butler has never been sexier... In this cool flick she hires Jeff Fahey, who works for an organization run by James Coburn, to find the killer of her husband. The film looks great and has lots of twists and surprises. Probably Fahey's best role. The film is better than I thought it would be. And the ending is a shocking surprise.