Suman Roberson
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
kayaker36
John Hurt's strongest feature is his voice, full of shading and subtlety yet splendidly articulate with an attractive timbre. So why in HELL would he be cast as a professional killer with maybe twenty-five lines of dialog in the whole picture? What a waste!A very young Tim Roth with a blond dye job looks underfed and downright weird, though he does try for the eager apprentice thing and in places gets it right. The distinguished Spanish actor Fernando Rey has a tiny part, not appearing until the movie is three-quarters over.Ms. del Sol looks attractive though her character--unlike her bosom-- is hardly developed. Terrence Stamp looks better than ever but has little to do in the picture, which lurches from crime drama to travelogue (some nice shots of the countryside of northern Spain) to philosophical exposition, unable to decide what it wants to be. The script writer apparently didn't know how to end the story. By then he must have been told that the movie already was too long. The ending he chose seems tacked on, with heavy borrowing from the Ambrose Bierce short story "Parker Adderson, Philosopher". What's good apart from the beauty of the Basque country are the action sequences near the start and at the very beginning the English courtroom scene.
MisterWhiplash
The Hit is a movie that is hard to forget, but if you do you'll be happy to remember it. It's the kind of movie that had I seen it in the 1980's, I would still think back fondly to a moment or two, to the strange sense of inner peace that Terence Stamp's character Willie Parker has on this 'road trip' to his death by the hands of gangsters, or the way that John Hurt's Braddock wears his sunglasses, or how the chipper Spanish music accentuates scenes with an unusual flavor. We may have seen movies where a criminal, who went 'rat' on his former criminal buddies, is discovered years later to finally meet his comeuppance, but it's hard to think of another quite like this, one that is directed with such an eye for photographic beauty in the Spanish villas and mountains and deserts, or with the dark comedy of the performances.It's ostensibly just about that, two criminals (Hurt and Tim Roth) taking a guy like Willie Parker back to meet his maker for what he did. But there's more to the tale: they stop off at another mate's flat in Madrid and they take his girl (Laura Del Sol), an innocent, as collateral when they get across the border, and from there it's about what Braddock will or won't do, what Roth's Myron as the young, energetic upstart who could possibly stop Braddock from his path of destruction, and how a weary detective (Fernando Rey, who has not a line of dialog) follows along the trail of violence and bloodshed. It's about this without ever having to push the dialog in explanation too much: only in the last third, when we hear Willie's reasons for being so... comfortable with his position as a kidnapped wanted man, that the screenplay stops to add words.It's fairly dramatic and contemplative on what it is to be a criminal, how to be as you are with a gun pointed at someone or committing violence or acting all like a bad-ass. There's this conflict we see especially between the three characters of Willie, Myron and Braddock, where one is just along for the ride, with some gallows humor so to speak ("I'll just get back in the car then?), one is just fine getting his thousand dollars for his first ever job, but will stop his superior if need be, and the other is quiet and calm, like a refugee from a Jim Jarmusch crime film (coincidentally to the Stranger from Limits of Control Hurt was also in that mystery movie), but is professional to a degree. Frears lets the actors open up the material as he opens up the scope and environments they inhabit: it's not about the standard plot, but about what the characters are about.I may have made The Hit to sound ponderous or pretentious, but it really isn't. It's a very entertaining and surprising ride we take, where conventions are eschewed for that feeling of anything-is-possible on the road. There's some laughs, there's some thrills, and an ending that is not predictable despite it following a formula going all the way back to 1940's film noir. It's an underrated gem from British crime lore that should be seen by anyone on the lookout for something different from the genre, or for something unexpected from the actors (Roth's being his screen debut).
dbborroughs
Two hit men go to Spain and pick up a fellow crook who went into hiding years before. They are suppose to drive him back to Paris, however as they hit the road, it quickly becomes clear that things are not what they seem and that the hit men are in for more than they ever bargained for.Tightly plotted and neat little thriller that works thanks to its three stars. Terrence Stamp kicked his career into high gear once more with his turn as the man hauled off for execution. So calm in the face of death its almost unnerving and its not hard to see how he can begin to play his captors like a violin. John Hurt and Tim Roth are his equal as the two hit men who never saw what they were walking into. This is ensemble acting at its finest.This is a great little film. Its worth seeking out.
benashe
A potentially good idea gets completely let down by a weak script which throws all credibility out the window leaving the actors very little to work with. Roth covers it up as best he can by being all mouth; Hurt has about as much menace as a fluffy bunny and Stamp can't seem to decide whether he's playing an ex-London crook or some toff straight off the playing fields at Eton. As for poor Laura del Sol she does what she can but her character is no more than every northern European's idea of the stereotypical Latino woman who's all pouts and hot temperament. If you're a fan of any of the main actors don't disappoint yourself or fool yourself (as I suspect many of the other reviewer's here have done). Watch it by all means but stay critical; you know these guys can do better.
