Hit List

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.

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.

Like I said, this is quite a trashy movie. I didn't realize that it had been on TV until I checked this web site recently. Anyway, I saw the movie on video; so I'm sure that it was edited severely before it hit TV. There is a topless breast shot in the first ten seconds. As far as what that says for the rest of the movie, do your own math. Even though I am a huge fan of Yancy Butler, this movie just didn't do it for me. And that's saying something because I'm an open minded person who's willing to give anything a chance. (See my comments on the police action thriller "Jailbait".) There is a funny scene where Jeff Fahey and Yancy Butler are making out, and her hair gets in his mouth. (As you can tell, I find just about anything humorous.) Now that James Coburn has won an Oscar, he is probably trying to erase all connections between himself and this movie.

the hit list is an awesome film . i think the jazz soundtrack adds to the 'mood ' and suspense . his film adds to the fact that all you need to make a great suspense film is a man , a woman , an old man , a villain and most definitely ... a room with a view (preferably a view offered by a telescope ) i mean , now , how many erotic thrillers have featured glass windowed apartments which have a telescope ...?

the beauty of watching such films is the fact that they have residues of great suspense moments created by many directors and storytellers over the years . hence you always end-up feeling or rather being reminded of some classics .

one doubt though . the film was R-Rated for most things . however the version i saw had none of hose things . people out there please educate me if there is an uncut version or at least if what i saw was probably cut .

Fahey is good here actually...the story's ok enough, its got all the classic ingredients of a solid film noir--its got a potential femme fatale, its got a decent enough boss character played by a great veteran actor (in this case James Coburn), its got a hero who is talked into murdering a guy who's giving a woman a lot of trouble....I just 100% described "Double Indemnity" which this movie is nowhere near the quality of...but for once its not the screenplay's fault so much as it is the pacing of the film...it is sloooow moving from plot point to plot point. Slow and rather somber too. A movie like this, i'm not asking for it to be funny but a couple of wry tossed off one liners here or there would've been very effective. Instead we get a lot of Fahey grimacing over him violating his own code. (Hmmm an assassin with his own moral code...where have i seen that before???) That said, its not terrible, if you stumble across it as I did, its worth a look if only for Fahey's very solid performance. (Coburn is good in his handful of scenes too, but unfortunately he's not really given much to do beyond look concerned and issue some ominous warnings about Fahey getting too close) Again its not a terrible movie, but its just too slowly paced for its own good. (I did like the jazz score to it tho, those opening credits are very engaging and seem to promise a better movie largely due to that score)