Hit Man is a rom-dramedy about a college professor Gary(Glen Powell) who moonlights as a tech for a contract killing entrapment scheme for the NOPD. When the cop who impersonates the assassin gets cancelled(for unspecified reasons) Gary(a civilian) steps in and you know what, he's pretty darn good at it! He is solicited by Madison(Adria Arjona) to kill her vaguely problematic husband but he tanks the sting because she's attractive and charming. Sparks ensue!
Powell is not a movie star, he may be one day, he certainly has talent, but it is painfully clear here he cannot anchor a movie. Or at least one this poorly and under written. He flounders. His voice over is excruciating. There is no believable character here or any semblance of narrative logic. His parade of various hit man alter egos is presumably meant to be funny but comes across as tonally baffling and thin. Arjona's character is offensively flat, she has talent, but is not asked to do anything aside from contort her automaton of a character to fit the terrible plotting.
The production is proficient enough but lacks any personality or real creativity, not a surprise from co-writer/director Richard Linklater who's output since Boyhood has been spotty at best(see the truly repugnant Everybody Wants Some!!). But the script is the real culprit. It strains credulity across every aspect, is a confusion of genre and tone, and doesn't deliver on any part of that confusion- its not funny, its not romantic, its not thrilling, its not mysterious. This is the kind of straight-to-Netflix dreck you'd expect from a no-name writer/director/star not an Oscar winner and one of Hollywood's presumptive heir apparents.
Mind-numbing. Worst of the year contender.
Currently streaming on Netflix.
Don't See It.
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