Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Michael_Elliott Hit Man (1972) ** (out of 4) Fairly weak and at times tame Blaxploitation flick has Bernie Casey playing a man who travels to L.A. after the suspicious death of his brother. It turns out that the brother got involved with gangsters and pornography so Casey must seek some revenge. HIT MAN really isn't a very good movie, although fans of the genre will probably find enough entertaining things in it to make it worth sitting through. I think the funniest thing about the picture is the dialogue, which of course is full of the "N" word but there are some hilarious one-liners. The dialogue certainly fits into the "so bad it's good" territory but it at least gives you a reason to laugh. The film contains quite a bit of nudity from start to finish but the real surprise was the lack of any real violence up until the very end. Once the ending comes around then we're greeted with some rather over-the-top and very bloody death scenes. The film is basically a reworking of the British classic GET CARTER but this film here is certainly lacking in most categories. The performances are all okay but certainly nothing that's going to jump out at you. Casey would go on to star in other Blaxploitation flicks like CLEOPATRA JONES and DR. BLACK, MR. HYDE and while he's certainly nothing classic like Jim Brown, he at least manages to keep you entertained. Pam Grier is sadly wasted in her supporting role that simply doesn't give her enough to do. Director George Armitage certainly keeps the film moving at a good pace but there's certainly a major need of a re-write.

Uriah43 "Tyrone Tackett" (Bernie Casey") is a hit man for the mob in Oakland who flies back to his old hometown of Los Angeles to investigate the mysterious death of his brother. Once he arrives he gets very little cooperation from those who knew his brother and this causes him to dig deeper. Eventually clues turn up which indicate a possible Los Angeles mob connection to the pornographic film industry with friction coming from the local mob boss who doesn't like outsiders snooping around on his turf. Now, from what I understand there are a number of people who consider this to be a blaxploitation version of the movie, "Get Carter" which was filmed a year earlier. Having never seen that particular film I can't really comment one way or the other. What I can say, however, is that I found this movie to be enjoyable due in large part to the way this film kept me guessing as to what would happen next. Likewise, I thought Bernie Casey put on a pretty good performance. On the other hand, there were a number of good characters who I thought should have been given more screen time and I was rather disappointed that one of the ladies: "Gozelda" (Pam Grier), "Laurel Garfoot" (Lisa Moore) or "Rochelle Tackett" (Candy All) weren't given a more graceful exit. There were also some sex scenes and nudity which lacked any real passion or sensuality. It was just there. Even so, the film overall wasn't too bad and I rate it as slightly above average.

TheRenegadeTaoist This film shows how taking even a solidly founded film and remaking it with low end rambling dialogue can mutilate what had some promise. Shot almost scene for scene from GET CARTER -based on the 1969 novel Jack's Return Home (which has resonated through multitudes of other film plots successfully). This movie flounders in a horribly almost plot-less screenplay. I dread what the outcome would have been had GET CARTER not been the master mold. In this genre remake the hero is not clear as to his history and drive and floats from place to place. No matter how much spicing up with racy visuals it still falls short.Not trying to short change any film, I watched it a second time and nothing changed, no nuance to be found (no fault of Bernie Casey). This is a typical low grade band wagon production from MGM of the time. With dialogue like "That just ain't in his head. I'm the freak of the family", when pondering whether his brother's death could have actually been a suicide you have a long haul to the end of this one.Better use of the "out for revenge" plots of this era and genre have been seen in Welcome Home Brother Charles and Gordon's War.

Wizard-8 The concept - making a blaxploitation version of GET CARTER - certainly sounds interesting, and throughout you do see signs it could have worked. However it fails almost entirely because of a screenplay that has the hero get *nowhere* in his investigation until over an *hour* has passed! Until then he just goes from place to place asking if anyone knows anything, and getting no real answers. It gets boring pretty fast, even with the surprising amount of nudity and sex that comes up. The remaining part of the movie does offer some okay action (and bursts surprisingly graphic violence), but it's too little, too late. Still, as disappointing as this movie is, it is by no means the worst entry in the blaxploitation era.