Not even bad in a good way

Don't Believe the Hype

Crappy film

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I have to say, that image of a tailored Billy Dee Williams holding a rocket launcher is a beautiful sight; but blaxploitation this is not."Hit!" plays like a straightforward drama and its star, much closer to Bronson or Eastwood, brings the intensity as a grieving father whose daughter just O.D.'d. the movie has its eye on commentary as Williams and his DIY strike team take the drug war to the kingpins at the top. There are lighter moments - like the McDonald's product placement and Richard Pryor ad-libbing his end of the dialogue - and the pacing isn't perfect, but this is a pleasant surprise. I knew I'd like this, but for different reasons altogether. 7/10

the plot is awful but the premise is heart felt. Substitute heroine for any vice or society's many ills and that's the "bag guy(s)" in this movie.The Hit! takes a little from each previous genre during the '70's and late '60's and twists them to such an extent that if the movie was made 40 years prior to it's release date or 30 years after, it would, could and still stands up to the test of time. You can see elements of the dirty dozen/guns of the Naverone themes. James Bond/"Get Carter" char. Shaft/inner city turmoil etc.I initially saw bits of this movie at 0'dark thirty on USA channel about 13-14 years ago. It was just before the plan's 'plot' implementation. But What kept me spellbound was seeing Billy Dee holding what I believe was a Swedish K or M-36 "pulverizer" submachine gun! I mean Billy Dee?!? Mr. Cool!?! I'd never even seen him look mean! Forget about being a assassin. But their he was.After 5 minutes I was hooked. I tried finding the movie in the stores but to no avail. I asked every retailer I could find if they had the movie. Most thought I was DELUSIONAL. They'd never heard of the movie or couldn't order it.Finally 5 years ago the movie came on AMC of all places and I could finally watch the movie in it's entirety. I wasn't disappointed. A sequel or a remake would be perfect write about now.

This si the blaxploitation version of the French Connection.A gov't agent's is devastated when his niece dies at age 15 of heroin overdose. As he pummels the dealer who sold it, (accompanied by the boyfriend who gave it to her whom he does nothing to), the dealer blabbers something about him being the low man on the totem pole, etc. Billy Dee agrees, doesn't kill him and decides to set his sights higher up the chain of command, in fact he sets the all the way at the top. Not a bad premise, but the execution and plot in general is poor. This movie is 2 hours long and it is literally over an hour before this story begins to develop. He gathers a team of people who have had drugs affect their lives and he pulls some kind of bribe on all of them to have them participate in his scheme (a scheme which is left extremely vague until the end).They travel to France where their plan is pulled off without a hitch, all of France's Heroin kingpins are murdered in various fashions. the good guys win, and we assume the US heroin trade has taken a major major hit.This could have been a good movie, were it not for so much wasted time between the plan and the execution. With some reworking this could have been really good. The acting of all of the major players was really good even when their behavior seemed unrealistic, the actors did well. A movie like Gordon's War has a better plot, and better execution, and although Hit! is the more serious film with better acting, I'd say Gordon's War has much more replay value. Partly because Hit! is a more drama than action film, I expected it to be more realistic and it certainly was not. And there is no reason why 30 minutes could not have been cut out of this film, there are so many extra scenes in this movie that are redundant or don't push the story forward.

...and in fact, Hit! is an ambitious mixture of action and character study. At 134 minutes, one might suspect the director of overweening pride, but in fact there's little in the way of flab here. Billy Dee Williams proves that he should have been a major star and Richard Pryor is, as always, brilliant. Add a terrific supporting cast (Warren Kemmerling, Paul 'They Came From Within' Hampton, Sid Munson), a host of slimy French drug dealers, and a heaping dollop of revenge for a thoroughly satisfying blast of 70s-style crime dramatics.