The Hit List (1993)

Undescribable Perfection

The Worst Film Ever

How sad is this?

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Charlie Pike is an ex-military assassin working for the Committee – a group of lawyers who enforce their own version of justice where they rep rich drug dealers to protect their reputation then kill their clients by using Pike, who engineers the deaths to look like accidents or natural causes. After his last job, Pike decides to retire but is given a favour by Committee head Peter Mayhew to help a family friend who is being menaced by her late husband's business partner. Pike agrees to kill the partner, but when he discovers that the target was a former comrade turned government informant, he suspects that something is not quite right about this job. And when various assassins attempt to kill him, he realises that he has walked into a deadly trap of his own making.William Webb will be known these days as being the DOP for the hit military cop show NCIS. But back in the early 1990s, he made The Hit List, a B-grade thriller starring the likes of Jeff Fahey & James Coburn.The film is a routine thriller, nothing more, nothing less. But the plot is interesting enough to make this worth a watch for B-film enthusiasts & the fact that Fahey gives a good performance & James Coburn is as sinister as ever. The relationship between Fahey's assassin & Yancy Butler's double-dealing client is rocky given her duplicity but does hold by a tiny thread. The ending is a little weak but does have that Romeo & Juliet feel to it that makes it watchable.

This film starts by giving you the impression you are in for a good show (b movie or not), right from the outake you are presented with a far from unattractive sexually active blonde and Jeff Fahey (someone I regard as a good actor) preparing to do something nasty with a suppressed gun and a container of rather deadly looking pills! This is where the impression quickly wears off. The plot is very weak making it impossible to take your eyes off the screen in fear of getting lost in the film should you decide to do so. The action is also very weak and never really takes off, something which is usually a necessity in order to save a film with a plot as tender as this. I never have been a big fan of Yancy Butler but have never been one to complain about her removing her clothes, something which this film also shy's away from bar once. I cannot think of one reason to recommend this film for viewing, so basically don't watch it....

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.

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.