Hit man is Yet another “based on” Tale
Hit Man is on Netflix. It is a true story “with a happy ending.”Let me explain the quotation marks here. The ending, as the filmmakers snappily explain after the movie ends, was made up.
The Story
Hit Man has no less than three scribes. Richard Linklater (If the name sounds familiar, it may be because of Boyhood. Patricia Arquette won an Oscar for her performance.) along with Hit Man actor Glen Powell and Skip Hollandsworth. Linklater also directed the movie.
The film is based on a Texas Monthly article.
Powell plays Gary Johnson a college professor. The local police use him to help them on “sting” cases. The normal “hit man” messes up and gets suspended from the force. Johnson is press ganged into taking his place as the pretend assassin.
He turns out to be a natural. Johnson even goes so far as to change his appearance and accent. He is a hit with the local Police Department, but not with the suspended cop (Jasper, played with a certain gritty sliminess by Austin Amelio.)
Everything is going great until Gary meets Madison (Adria Arjona). Rather than set up the sting as usual, he talks her out of killing her husband.
Oddly enjoyable
If you look at Hit Man’s IMDb page, the film is classified as “Action, Comedy, Crime. Hit Man is all three of these although it has an odd pacing. As much as I enjoyed the film, it felt…off.
To be fair the movie does what is on the label. It just did run as smoothly as I expected. It does not appear to be down to any particular thing or performer.
Even the actors playing the parts of those fooled by Johnson acquitted themselves brilliantly. I just had odd moments where the film did not play as fluidly as I felt it should.
Ranking time
Hit Man scores an uneasy 4 stars. It could have been a 5 star winner but for that “odd” disjointed feeling I got watching the movie. It is on Netflix, as mentioned above, and it is based on a true story. The late Gary Johnson is the one holding the award.
The Trailer
Hit Man is streaming on Netflix. Check out the trailer or just head on over to Netflix and watch the film.
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