Hit Me

This movie kind of took me by surprise. I thought it was going to be another semi boring heist flick, but it wasn't. I think it had some genuinely interesting points to make about one's own desperation and greed.

The movie tells the story of a lonely and frustrated bellhop (koteas)who stumbles into a plan to rob a group of wealthy card sharks who are going to take part in an illegal poker game. A slew of mistakes and fumbles occur which leads to an unfortunate (in my opnion) ending.

Koteas gives a very edgy performance and makes the movie all by himself. The rest of the cast also does their part too, in particular the actor who plays koteas's childlike brother, quite a convincing portrayal.

I give "Hit Me" 9 out of 10

Hit Me, Steven Shainberg's (Secretary) directorial debut has a lot going for it including a great cast and a truly striking set to utilize. Unfortunately, the story is utterly ridiculous. The first half hour is a long, drawn out affair I guess to establish Elias Koteas' character, who seems to be nothing more than a series of ticks. We find out he has a brother who is mentally retarded, and the state wants to take away, but Elias will not let them happen. On the verge of losing his job at a two star hotel, he becomes involved in an incident (which I won't reveal here) that is so muddled, so badly played out and so unbelievable that I found it hard to believe that the rest of the motivations of the characters in this movie, rested on it. If the source material (a Jim Thompson novel) was unclear,

Shainberg certainly didn't make it any clearer which leads to the main character entering into a heist for truly inane reasons. It's hard to get excited about a heist when the reasoning behind it is virtually nonexistent. Yes, there are heists for the sake of heists - and often that works fine - but this film spends a lot of time and energy trying to establish some reason for this to take place, but fails to convince.

Good film noir, relies on amoral men, sexual women and desperate desires. Hit Me which claims to be a film noir is simply desperate - for a good story and a stronger execution.

This is an utterly putrid film of Jim Thompson's terrific novel, "A Swell-Looking Babe." In adapting the book for the screen, writer Denis Johnson has stripped the novel of all its dark humor and subtext and given us a tepid and dull film.

Gone are the father and the whole McCarthyism subplot, which is crucial to what the protagonist does. And Thompson's denouement was dripping with irony.

Thompson's protagonist was a multi-layered character who had good reasons for what he did. Here, Elias Koteas is just a boring hotel employee. No offense to the actress who plays the femme fatale, but the role needs someone with a lot more substance than she brings to it.

William H. Macy might be highlighted on the DVD box, but he has just one scene. That's it. Come to think of it, he might have been better in the lead role.

Do yourself a favor. Instead of renting this piece of crap, read the novel. Your time and money would be better spent.

I waited patiently for Koteas' agonizingly slow and neurotic performance to pay off. Just when I thought I was going to be rewarded, I was not. By the end I wanted them all to get shot, including the lovely French Canadian woman. I must say, however, that I thought that the film was beautifully shot and faithful, at least partially, to the film-noir ideal. Unfortunately, none of the characters performances made the plot bearable. Even the title has little relevance. They never showed a card game, any card game. I would have settled for the Windows 95 version of solitaire by the end. I was reminded of a watered-down cross between Cronnenberg and Lynch.

With the success of Secretary director Steven Shainberg's earlier film Hit Me nows comes out on DVD. Unfortunately Hit Me would have benefited from a more experienced director adapting the source material, Jim Thompson's novel A Swell Looking Babe. Thompson's work has been extremely difficult to film inasmuch as most of his writing relates to the inner thoughts and emotions of his characters, rather that simply plot and dialog. Director Shainberg and leading man Elias Koteas attempt to deal with this through an over the top display of physical acting. If facial contortions represent emotion then obviously even more facial contortions represents even more emotion. This is combined with leading lady Laure Marsac who is blank faced throughout the film (although this French actress might have had trouble in English). Jim Thompson's novels contain a strong element of black comedy and initially, based on these acting choices and the bright lighting not associated with noir films, I thought Shainberg was going for black comedy. Imagine my surprise, as the film progressed and I discovered that we were supposed to take this seriously. It completely fails to work. It is not dark enough to reflect Thompson's noir and not comedic enough to reflect Thompson's black comedy. These choices ultimately have to laid at the feet of director Shainberg. Of the lesser characters, William H. Macy, highlighted in the DVD advertising, has a single short scene as a cop questioning Koteas. Macy is amusing as he cites the last meals of various killers. Philip Baker Hall uses his strong presence to offset a poorly written character. Tragically this was Haing S. Ngor's last film before he was senselessly killed in a robbery. He has only a few lines, as a hotel clerk, and its sad to think that this is the last role for an Academy award winner (The Killing Fields). All in all, you would be more entertained buying Thompson's novel than buying this DVD.