Hit Man (1972)

The first of two remakes of Mike Hodges' seminal 1971 British gangster movie Get Carter, Hit Man (1972) followed very close on the heels of the original; maximising payback on their own property, MGM put another film version of Ted Lewis' original novel into production just a year later, reworking the plot in a B-movie, Blaxploitation format. This adaptation features Bernie Casey in the Michael Caine role of an out-of-town mob enforcer (here called Tyrone Tackett) who travels to another city (in this case Los Angeles replaces Newcastle upon Tyne) to look into the circumstances of his brother's death, and becomes embroiled in a world of drugs, blackmail, and pornography.Admittedly superior to the Sylvester Stallone abomination that followed in 2000, this still isn't a very good film. Directed by the sometime Hollywood workhorse George Armitage (Grosse Pointe Blank), it is certainly more explicit than the far superior original, with several very bloody scenes of violence (most notably the climactic invasion of the villain's mansion, originally a police raid but which here becomes a machine-gun massacre orchestrated by a rival group of thugs, and the ketchup sure does fly), whilst the sexual aspects are similarly amplified (though it must be stated that, in the porn star / hooker role, a frequently unclothed Pam Grier cuts an infinitely sexier figure than the pill-popping bike played by Geraldine Moffatt). Like most Blaxploitation films, it's quite chronically dated too, with Casey's 'power pimp' wardrobe particularly outrageous, and it is easy to see why it has been accused of excessive stereotyping by some critics. There are a couple of interesting pieces of innovation on the original's storyline (adding a note of ambiguity to the ending is a nice touch, and watch out for Die Hard's Paul Gleason as the assassin), whilst others just seem gratuitous (the method of Grier's exit seems to have been done purely for visceral effect); however, the theme song ("Hit Man, Hit Man, whatcha' gonna do 'bout the situation?") is absolutely dire, the tone is uncertain, the dog-fighting footage toward the start of the film is absolutely reprehensible, and the film's 'black power' pretensions finally irritate. For committed Blaxploitation aficionados only.

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.

I just watched this on Turner Classics Middle East, and I can tell by all the places the reviewers come from (mostly the UK) that this movie does not get airplay in the USA. Ted Turner (if he owns the overseas MGM catalog and network) has no problems showing stereotype stuff overseas but I guess he catches to much flak at his liberal cocktail parties in America to air films like this or another I just saw on TCM, "Cool Breeze". Both movies were made the same year 1972. Let me educate the European reviewers who seem to be making some observations and try to clarify why it was done. One reviewer said that the blacks dress outrageously and talk stereotypical or something along those lines. The dress is not over the top, I grew up in New York city and I'll never forget seeing an actual pimp mobile, its just like the movie "Magnum Force" had very outrageous style and in your face. The clothes did happen, of course its a movie so not everyone can afford all the nice clothes and dress and stuff but thats a movie thing, the styles are accurate for that time. As far as the speech goes, it sounded like it was OK to me as well, nothing at all outrageous about it. Blacks in America have their own dialect unlike UK blacks which although I'm sure an English person may recognize the difference, they are a lot closer than Caucasian and black Americans generally sound. Third, a lot of you UK reviewers are taking this movie waaaay to seriously. This movie was shown in a second tier type theater in the northern states (where I grew up)and probably in a predominantly black area theater in the south. It was where people went to get get wasted and drunk (usually in the theater), and have a good time with LOTS of audience ad libs thrown out in the audience. That is why the ending is "happy", this is not a movie for critical thought, it's for good times. By the way, Cool Breeze is a blaxploitation flick of The Asphalt Jungle and it to has a "happy" ending unlike the original, as well. My favorite parts of the movie are when Tyrone is driving with Sherwood and they are swigging and knockin down a quart of bourbon and getting lit up! Sherwood, played by Sam Laws was great in his small role as he was when he was in Cool Breeze. Other notable scenes that I enjoyed, Tyrone blows a hole in his landladies roof with a shotgun and shes mad that he didn't do her before he left! Pam Grier bust fans (like me) will groove to this one, she bares that great chest a good while and it's looking real fine. All in all, this honky says check this flick out its, "dyno-mite"!

As a big fan of 'Get Carter,' I watched this on cable TV for a laugh and wasn't disappointed. It is a funky blaxploitation movie to rival 'Shaft' and a pretty fair remake of 'Carter,' much better than the Stallone nonsense of a couple of years back. It was fun matching scenes from the original especially the 'phone sex, which just killed me. Very funny and pretty cool!