The Big Hit . Newcity Chicago . 05-03-98

The Big Hit

DIRECTED BY: Kirk Wong

REVIEWED: 05-03-98

I used to like Hong Kong movies, then I saw too many of them. There are directors from the territory who have remarkable signature styles, frantic, fractured, postmodern and dislocating, such as the kinetic blood ballets of John Woo or the manic mannerism of Wong Kar-Wai. Tsui Hark's producer-as-auteur style hits as often as it misses. Jackie Chan? Brilliant charm, death-deifying [SIC] stunts. Hong Kong movies are often marvels of non sequitur, volumes of narrative invention created by incoherence, sloppiness, no money for second takes. Where Indian movies might pause for a song, Hong Kong movies usually find the time for a few long draughts of sentimentality. In quantity, the work of even the best second-tier directors palls and appalls. Kirk Wong, now dubbed Che-Kirk Wong, was an energetic director who must be paid a dubious compliment: with "The Big Hit" he's made probably the first American studio film shot by an expatriate Hong Kong director that truly captures the tawdry strengths and alarming inadequacy of HK filmmaking. In other words, it's a bold, heartless, bizarre, xenophobic to the point of racism piece of shit. Four hit men-Mark Wahlberg, Bokeem Woodbine, Lou Diamond Phillips and Antonio Sabato Jr.-open the movie like gangbusters, shooting and grimacing and splintering a fancy hotel. So far, so gaudy. Then the plot kicks in, the complications, the sour jokes. If you care about the story, you've surely already seen the movie. Why did this movie make $11 million last weekend? Did the sarcastic trailer hit its mark? Is Mark Wahlberg a star now? Are boys of all ages now angry that Christina Applegate kept her clothes on? Questions for the ages.

--Ray Pride

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