Customer Reviews

Hitman [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Hit Man" is one of my favorite Chuck Norris movies, primarily because of the complexity of the character he portrays. On the one hand, he is a cold-blooded, heartless, murderous brute who can blow away a cohort from point-blank range without batting an eye; on the other hand, he shows a genuine caring and depth of feeling that is completely opposite from the hit man persona. The film is quite violent, and one scene showing the revenge of one mob against the other shouldn't be viewed by anyone with a weak stomach. But fans of Chuck will be kept entertained from beginning to end. And the bad guy gets his just reward in the most perfect way in the end.

I became a fan of Chuck Norris after reading his autobiography. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of most his movies. But "The Hitman" is an exception. It is an excellent film and ranks with "Invasion USA" as Chuck Norris' best.

Norris plays a cop who is shot and left for dead by a corrupt colleague. He then assumes a new identity and infiltrates the Seattle mafia who are battling with Vancouver-based mobsters for control of the drug trade. When Iranian drug dealers move in, total war breaks out between the three groups.

Probably the best scene in any Chuck Norris film is when he walks into an Arab restaurant and single-handedly takes on the Iranian drug dealers. Let's just say that it is politically incorrect action film-making at its best!

I highly recommend this film, even for people who usually don't like Chuck Norris flicks.

The Hitman gives us a darker more brutal and vile Chuck Norris who is also a very sensitive and moral guy too. He's a deadly vile hitman with a heart! Michael Parkes is in this one too as an over-the-top evil doer who makes other movie bad guys look pale and shoulda got an Academy Award! Really he's that amazing! The combo of a crazed Parkes and a nasty Norris make this violent, and even xenophobic, bloody mess a real gem. This is one fun flick and Norris' best!

The Hitman is a great example of Chuck Norris done right - great actions, great quips, and great supporting acting.

In The Hitman, Norris plays a cop who was double-crossed and thought to be killed. He knows works undercover as a hitman for the syndicate trying to to get to the bottom of his betrayal, and trying to stay alive in a turf war between the Mafia and French-Canadian gangsters.

Norris is definitely in his element in this film, and his portrayal has the calm, ease, and self-assuredness of someone who acting in a role that would be disastrous for some to pull off. The Hitman is one of his best films by far, and a must for fans of his work.

This is by far my favorite Chuck Norris movie--- he's a Hitman and one mean dude.

Too bad it's full-frame only, it was originally a widescreen release and as I remember, it uses the full frame.

And dvdtown.com calls the video "fuzzy".

How could Warner do this ? Somebody over there knows better because they put out a lot of great stuff, like the Noir collections.

Why put out a sub-standard dvd ?

It's a given fact that Chuck Norris can pull off straight thrillers better than most others in the action genre, and in that respect, "The Hitman" here is more than passable, especially when you consider the stage of the man's career wherein it was produced. Still, it's difficult to appreciate the movie 100% when considering that at the same time, Seagal and Van Damme were producing some of their most adrenaline-fueled vehicles; in comparison, Norris' film is a bit toothless, relying very heavily on a story that could conceivably been pulled off better by another star and/or director. For fans, I'd say this one's definitely worth owning, but casual karate aficionados should look in other places for their kicks.

The story: after being double-crossed by his crooked parter (Michael Parks, Kill Bill) and declared dead, policeman Cliff Garrett (Norris, Walker, Texas Ranger) goes undercover as a mob enforcer. It will be up to him to diffuse a brewing mafia war before he is uncovered.

I know I'm going to receive mucho "unhelpful" votes for writing this, but I can't help but think that Chuck was trying to emulate Steven Seagal with this vehicle. His long hair is a dead giveaway, the plot point of a police officer being declared dead only to come back later was lifted right from Hard to Kill, and the overtly gritty tone and mob affiliation themes (not to mention the scene wherein he blows a villain's legs apart with a shotgun) had been seen only half a year prior to this one in Out for Justice. With that said, Norris never really seems to betray himself or his image: the story has some nicks in it and the narration is occasionally soppy (e.g. emotional music suggests we're supposed to feel sorry when the despicable mob characters are killed), but it feels a lot more confident and streamlined than most of Seagal's features, and Norris himself never contradicts his own archetype. My favorite scenes were those wherein he interacts with child actor Salim Grant (Ghost Dad) and teaches him to stand up to a bully and subsequently has the two of them end up shaking hands.

In these scenes, he teaches the kid some karate moves, and that's just about all the martial artistry you're going to see in this movie. The action is unbelievably scarce for a Cannon Pictures production, limited to a single short fistfight and a handful of one-sided shootouts. As I pointed out earlier, the thriller portions work out well enough - especially during the picture's middle act - but they're not proper substitutes to fisticuffs. To make up for this are the incredibly hammy characterizations of the mafia characters: stereotypes ahoy with the Brooklyn-accented, meat factory-owning Don (Al Waxman, Cagney & Lacey), the fancy-eating French-Canadian boss (Marcel Sabourin, Lilies), and moustached Iranian leader whom Chuck visits in a belly-dancing lounge and utters token lines like "Allah protects us" (Frank Ferrucci, who isn't actually Arabian). They're pretty offensive if you choose to take 'em seriously, but I think of them as just goofy and entertaining in an overblown way.

Not too much more to say about this one, besides that other people will probably have more fun with it than me and that Chucky Ducky's definitely done worse. Anyone looking for some Cannon-style fine ought to consider "The Hitman" a rental at the very least.

The Chuck wagon keeps rolling with The Hitman. We, Sid the Elf, are only sad that eventually we will run out of Norris movies to review. Don't be at all shocked if we start reviewing Walker, Texas Ranger seasons soon. Anyway, The Hitman was a pleasant surprise to Sid. We knew the title, but we thought that there was no way Chuck would be playing a straight up hitman. He did, even if it was as an undercover cop. This just proves Chuck's depth, skill, and prowess as an actor.

At the start of the movie, Chuck plays a narcotics cop named Cliff Garrett. He is on a bust with his partner, who turns out to be dirty and shoots Chuck right in the chest, causing him to go through a plate glass window, fall three stories and land on a car. It was an absolutely harrowing sight to see a bloody Chuck being rolled into the hospital on a gurney. Somber mood in the North Pole at that point. Remember, this is Chuck, of course he wasn't dead. But he was pissed. He must have been really pissed, enough to infiltrate the mob undercover, become their top contract killer (or hitman, get it?), and painstakingly exact revenge on his bum of a partner and the gangsters who controled him.

Now, Chuck goes by the name Danny Grogan, the fierce Irish hitman for the mob. Great names in this one, they probably took about 10 seconds to come up with. Adds to the B factor. He is called a mick several times throughout the film, which always gets a solid 8 on the comedy meter. And we thought we even heard Chuck call some guy a guido or something, and that always gets a solid 9 on the comedy meter if for no other reason than it makes Sid think of the legendary Dave Kleinfeld. Hey you, you wop! Anyway, imagine Chuck's already high level of toughness. Then it goes up when he plays a hitman, obviously. Now, he's playing an undercover cop hitman exacting revenge left and right! Ultra-tough, uber-tough movie all around. There was also a steamy love scene with Chuck, disturbing and hillarious at the same time. Speaking of disturbing and hillarious: what about the chunk of the film that focused on Chuck's To Catch a Predator-like relationship with the neighborhood kid? Made the film. The kid was being bullied by some mini-nazis because he's black so Chuck taught him how to fight. Also, the kid went on to um... i guess star in Saved By the Bell: The New Class. Perfect! And, Sid really believes that Chuck used this oportunity to show that he could make an instructional karate video after The Hitman failed miserably. As a special added touch, the director, Aaron Norris(yep, Chuck's brother. Too good to be true, right?) gave us a fight scene between the black kid and his bully that has to be seen to be believed.

So, obviously, Chuck takes down everyone. The Italian mob, the French-Canadian mob, his dirty ex-partner, and the Iranian mob. The Iranian mob is possibly the most pivotal part in this film because their leader was a dead ringer for Borat. Sid is 138% convinced that Sasha Baron Cohen, or whatever, got high one night, caught The Hitman on cable at 2:30 am while eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch saw this guy and came up with the Borat character.

The Hitman definitely gets 5 stars from Sid the Elf. It had mobsters from Kazacstahn, the longest Norris mullett to date, and a future Saved by the Bell: The New Class cast member. There were too many tough lines from Chuck to count, including the famous scene that had Chuck calling roughly 24 guys "Camel Jockeys." You had an inumerable number of roundhouse kicks as always. And, introducing a new term to the reviews of B expert Sid the Elf, The Hitman had a DMF of 9. What is the DMF you ask? It's the Don Mattingly Factor. It has long been the theory of Sid the Elf that any good action B must have at least one guy that looks like Don Mattingly. You know, wavy mullet, handlebar mustache; all the things that make someone just look funny. Well, The Hitman had 9 by Sid's count! This is fitting because Don Mattingly's nickname? You guessed it. The Hitman. Coinsidence? Sid thinks not.

Previous reviewers incorrectly call Chuck's character a "bigot". He isn't. He makes offensive remarks while PRETENDING to be working for a rival mob boss as part of a set-up. In other scenes he confronts bigotry. Those moments demonstrate his true beliefs: He opposes bigotry. It's too bad this movie has been misunderstood. The Hitman is one of Chuck's most entertaining action movies.

came in less than 3 days, was in the condition the seller said it was in, what more can I say about Chuck Norris, except A. Rey became a damn good actor from Oklahoma, All of his movies are GOOD

what make this movie so good, is that chuck norris can go from good cop to a hitman,this dvd has all the makings of a good mafia movie. if you like a good mafia movie, then this is the movie for you.