The Big Hit, Superbit Edition, on DVD

Call it an action comedy if you like, the Big Hit is more of a silly action move than an outright comedy.

And that's okay as long as it makes you laugh, and it does.

Mark Wahlberg is Melvin Smiley, a professional hit man with a heart of gold, a conscience, and a stomach problem. He's making good bucks in his chosen career, and he's good at it, but he's broke because his fiancee (Christina Applegate) and his girlfriend (Lela Rochon) are taking him to the cleaners.

As if that weren't bad enough, he has a videocassette (remember them?) overdue at the local video store and the obnoxiously snarky geek there is giving him grief over the phone.

One of his cohorts (Lou Diamond Phillips) draws him into a kidnapping scheme that's supposed to give Melvin a much-needed share in a million dollar ransom, but when this gang who can shoot straight but who can't really do anything else kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy Japanese businessman it not only turns out that the father doesn't have any money but that he's also best friends of their own boss (Avery Brooks).

Needless to say, all hell breaks loose and Cisco (Phillips) makes Melvin the fall guy so he can save his own worthless neck. So Cisco and some other Big Hitmen mosey around to Melvin's home (where the kidnappee is being held) to off him and rescue the girl as Melvin is trying to cook a nice kosher meal for his soon-to-be (or so he thinks) inlaws (Lainie Kazan and Elliott Gould).

In the end, Melvin gets together with, well, we won't spoil it for you…

Confused? Don't worry. It's all made fairly clearlin the script, which rockets along at a breakneck pace and even gives you a chance to go back a couple of times when people you assume must be dead suddenly pop up as if they were in a Saturday Movie Serial from the olden days of Hollywood.

It's really a rock 'em sock 'em bit of silliness, with lots of gunfire and guffaws, kind of like Jackie Chan meets John Frankenheimer. Perhaps it's because the film is a collaboration between Executive producer John Woo and producer Wesley Snipes, with direction by Hong Kong's Cke-Kirk Wong, who has directed Chan in the past.

The Big Hit offers plenty of action, mostly very well staged and shot, and lots of silliness and zaniness. Pretty good performances all around, too.

The Superbit DVD, not surprisingly, is superb. It features a crystal clear and gorgeously rendered anamorphic widescreen picture (16x9 TV compatible) that makes you almost want to reach into the TV to touch it (except you might get your hand blown off, let alone put finger marks on your screen). Edges are sharp and colors are rich and vivid.

The audio, as usual for a Superbit DVD, is offered in both Dolby Digital and DTS surround and it's wonderful. Since there are plenty of gunshots and explosions and cars and the like, it makes excellent use of all the audio channels and features dynamic and explosively rumbing bass, yet not at the expense of the mid range and high frequencies.

In short, as one would expect from one of Columbia Tristar's Superbit series, it's an audio/video treat. This makes this enjoyable romp of a flick even more enjoyable.

As with the other current Superbit titles, extras are dumped in favor of the superb audio and video quality and this is a most acceptable tradeoff.

The Big Hit, Superbit, from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
91 min, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christina Applegate, Avery Brooks, Bokeem Woodbine,
Produced by Warren Zide, Wesley Snipes,
Written by Ben Ramsey, Directed by Che-Kirk Wong

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