Tuez moi

With the success of Secretary director Steven Shainberg's earlier film Hit Me nows comes out on DVD. Unfortunately Hit Me would have benefited from a more experienced director adapting the source material, Jim Thompson's novel A Swell Looking Babe. Thompson's work has been extremely difficult to film inasmuch as most of his writing relates to the inner thoughts and emotions of his characters, rather that simply plot and dialog. Director Shainberg and leading man Elias Koteas attempt to deal with this through an over the top display of physical acting. If facial contortions represent emotion then obviously even more facial contortions represents even more emotion. This is combined with leading lady Laure Marsac who is blank faced throughout the film (although this French actress might have had trouble in English). Jim Thompson's novels contain a strong element of black comedy and initially, based on these acting choices and the bright lighting not associated with noir films, I thought Shainberg was going for black comedy. Imagine my surprise, as the film progressed and I discovered that we were supposed to take this seriously. It completely fails to work. It is not dark enough to reflect Thompson's noir and not comedic enough to reflect Thompson's black comedy. These choices ultimately have to laid at the feet of director Shainberg. Of the lesser characters, William H. Macy, highlighted in the DVD advertising, has a single short scene as a cop questioning Koteas. Macy is amusing as he cites the last meals of various killers. Philip Baker Hall uses his strong presence to offset a poorly written character. Tragically this was Haing S. Ngor's last film before he was senselessly killed in a robbery. He has only a few lines, as a hotel clerk, and its sad to think that this is the last role for an Academy award winner (The Killing Fields). All in all, you would be more entertained buying Thompson's novel than buying this DVD.

Hit me wastes the film rights to Jim Thompson's excellent novel A SWELL-LOOKING BABE. The story is discarded in favor of a pointless exercise in Scenery-chewing by the usually superb Elias Koteas. We witness pointless double-crosses and mindless plot twists while perverting the novel."Hit Me" is a show of mediocre style instead of things that most people like in movies: good characters, exciting plot, witty dialogue, things like that.

Jim Thompson fans, the only people who would want to see this movie anyways, should be prepared for disappointment.

Terrible movie. We can definitely tell is the director's debut. The only thing worth was Koteas' performance. Otherwise it seems like a film made by high school kids. It has hints of a black comedy, but in the end it's not. It has a few plot twists but they are completely predictable. I will be taking the DVD to resell it at Blockbuster. I wouldn't want anyone to take a look at my DVD collection and see this thing in there. That would be embarrassing. I have to give it a couple of points because at least at the beginning it tries to give you a background on the reasons why Koteas did what he did, but the way the movie develops is poorly executed.

Hit Me, Steven Shainberg's (Secretary) directorial debut has a lot going for it including a great cast and a truly striking set to utilize. Unfortunately, the story is utterly ridiculous. The first half hour is a long, drawn out affair I guess to establish Elias Koteas' character, who seems to be nothing more than a series of ticks. We find out he has a brother who is mentally retarded, and the state wants to take away, but Elias will not let them happen. On the verge of losing his job at a two star hotel, he becomes involved in an incident (which I won't reveal here) that is so muddled, so badly played out and so unbelievable that I found it hard to believe that the rest of the motivations of the characters in this movie, rested on it. If the source material (a Jim Thompson novel) was unclear,

Shainberg certainly didn't make it any clearer which leads to the main character entering into a heist for truly inane reasons. It's hard to get excited about a heist when the reasoning behind it is virtually nonexistent. Yes, there are heists for the sake of heists - and often that works fine - but this film spends a lot of time and energy trying to establish some reason for this to take place, but fails to convince.

Good film noir, relies on amoral men, sexual women and desperate desires. Hit Me which claims to be a film noir is simply desperate - for a good story and a stronger execution.

This is an utterly putrid film of Jim Thompson's terrific novel, "A Swell-Looking Babe." In adapting the book for the screen, writer Denis Johnson has stripped the novel of all its dark humor and subtext and given us a tepid and dull film.

Gone are the father and the whole McCarthyism subplot, which is crucial to what the protagonist does. And Thompson's denouement was dripping with irony.

Thompson's protagonist was a multi-layered character who had good reasons for what he did. Here, Elias Koteas is just a boring hotel employee. No offense to the actress who plays the femme fatale, but the role needs someone with a lot more substance than she brings to it.

William H. Macy might be highlighted on the DVD box, but he has just one scene. That's it. Come to think of it, he might have been better in the lead role.

Do yourself a favor. Instead of renting this piece of crap, read the novel. Your time and money would be better spent.