The Big Hit

The Big Hit is a dry comedy-action movie from 1998 which served as an acting vehicle for Mark Wahlberg and also starred Lou Diamond Phillips, with appearances by Christina Applegate, Avery Brooks, and Elliot Gould.

Analysis

The movie is driven towards suspension-of-disbelief twists of events, nearly serving as a parody of the action genre if it didn't seem to take itself (or Wahlberg take himself) so seriously. It is also chock full of pop culture references (the kidnapping team gives themselves aliases from Gilligan's Island, the Ghost-like seduction scene, and even a token A Few Good Men quote for good measure), and the scenes with Melvin and Keiko aggregate into a critical mass of erotic ephemera ranging from Lolitaism to messy-play to urophilia. Meanwhile, the movie attempts to become a pop culture reference itself (Brooks' exclamation of "Bust some caps!" being the best attempt).

Related Topics:
Gilligan's Island - Ghost - A Few Good Men - Lolita - Urophilia

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Nearly everyone in the movie seems to realize the absurdity and meaningless of their roles in the movie, despite a sense of tenacious desire to make them consistent and believable. Everyone, that is, except Wahlberg, who sincerely seems to be trying to prep himself for serious action roles, despite his character's otherwise humorous foibles. Perhaps he succeeds, given his starring role a few years later in 2003's The Italian Job.

Related Topics:
2003 - The Italian Job

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