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Allan Campbell (Cole Hauser) has had a rather interesting day. He shows up to work sporting a black eye. His boss picks the sleazy new employee over Allan for a promotion. At least after such an awful day at work, Allan can go home. He is then confronted with the fact that his wife is not only sleeping with his best friend, but she makes it a point to tell him about her affair. For someone like Allan, today is a day he wishes he could erase; to remedy his distress, he decides to get some drinks.
In the pub he chooses, Allan meets the eponymous Jonas Arbor who is blunt and the first to tell him that he is too soft. Arbor precedes to tell Allan his entire story. He is a professional hitman and he just murdered the controversial talk show host Dan O’Bannon. In disbelief at what he is hearing, Allan decides to joke along and plays a game Starting with Arbor, senior Jonas pencils five names of people he would want dead for all the people who p***ed him off that day.
Coming to terms with a horrible hangover from some drinking the night before, Allan wakes up in his car only to find out that his boss is dead. After collecting his thoughts, it occurs to him that the severed head of his boss didn’t seem that unfamiliar after all, he was number 5 on the list of Jonas’ enemies and his wife was number one.
It’s definitely not the catchiest title in the world; in fact some parts of the plot are borderline laughable. While it may be just another undiscovered gem waiting to be viewed on DVD, the concepts surpass the execution. Some notes I have read about this movie label it as a copycat ‘Collateral’ but I must be honest that it greatly fails to meet such lofty expectations. I do not consider it a case of Campbell being mistakenly recognized as the assassin, and he is rather unwillingly rescued from the second scene of the murder by Jonas, and there is no real tension in that. It is just a matter of moments between Jonas and the poor guy where Jonas is Levin and the other half I suppose he has no choice.
The acting was not that good overall, with Cole Hauser struggling to portray the man ringing in this blood bath, and Jonathon Lapaglia being underutilized in a subordinate role as the cop with little else to do but pick up the pieces after everything has been completed. On a positive note, I have to say I believe Cuba Gooding Jr. was brilliant in this one. His motivation was actually a little bit cliche and not properly fleshed out, but he properly conveyed his icy viciousness in what has to be his best role in a long time.
Even in dialogue, it was a painful experience and a particular portion of the script tried to bring “a twist” to our hero but that did not end well. It would have been better to leave it as it was rather than polishing it and tying up all the loose ends with a ribbon.
The Hit List has come out on the Fight Factory Label, a division of Sony PHE, and the recipient of several of the straight-to-DVD productions. If an average action thriller is what you like, then this one will most likely please you, as long as the level of quality or the originality of the material is not quite what you were hoping for.
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