Hit Man (2024)

 

 

Streaming Service: Netflix

Movie Name/Year: Hit Man (2024)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Romance

Length: 1h 55min

Rating: R

Director: Richard Linklater

Writers: Richard Linklater, Glen Powell, Skip Hollandsworth

Actors: Adria Arjona, Glen Powell, Retta, Austin Amelio, Molly Bernard, Mike Markoff, Bath Bartley

 

IMDb Blurb: A professor moonlighting as a hit man of sorts for his city police department, descends into dangerous, dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to a woman who enlists his services.

 

 

Selina’s Point of View:

When putting together for the Top 20 movies to watch in June of 2024, Hit Man was an easy pick to put in the top 10. It’s simply not smart to ignore any film directed by Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly, Boyhood, Bernie). The man is brilliant. He never misses as a director, sometimes as a producer, but never when he’s actively at the helm.

 

Still, I thought Hit Man would be cute at best. Somewhat funny, maybe a little relatable – the characters, if not the story/plot.

 

What I got blew my expectations out of the water.

 

 

Hit Man WAS very cute, and the main character was just as charming and relatable as he could be. Then there was this twist at the end that caught me completely off-guard. I felt so sure that I knew what was going to happen. I paused it within 15 minutes of the end, got a drink, had a conversation with my partner, and then came back to it like I wasn’t about to be rocked by this adorable little rom-com.

 

I watch a lot of movies. It’s very rare that one of them surprises me. The quality might throw me – I’ve seen small films with tiny budget blow mainstream flicks out of the water just as often as I’ve seen big-budget disasters, after all – but the actual content of a film doesn’t often shock me. Each genre has a stack of recipes that they pick from and it’s rare that any of them take that sharp left into something unseen.

 

Linklater took one of those rom-com recipes and turned it right on its head. Flawlessly, I might add.

 

I’m absolutely going to have to watch this film a few more times. Not just for myself, but because I’m going to have to show it to my best friend, my partner, their friends…

 

 

Cat’s Point of View:

Hit Man was my #1 pick for June 2024. My daughter and I watched it the day that it hit Netflix, and I was quite excited about it coming up for review. I could happily watch Hit Man over and over and likely find new nuances to appreciate..

 

There's really quite a lot to enjoy within this production. There's character development, comedy, betrayal, action, romance, a fun story, a twist, and an interesting setting. I could go on. 

 

Speaking of setting, I am always excited to watch a movie filmed in my home state of Louisiana. While the real-life person that this narrative was based on lived in Houston, TX and assisted that police department with their stings; the film location was switched to New Orleans for fiscal reasons. I think that it added an interesting twist to the story, myself. I am, admittedly, a bit biased on that front, however.

 

The cast for Hit Man was spot-on. Austin Amelio (Everybody Wants Some!!, The Walking Dead, Mercy Black) has a real knack for portraying characters you love to hate and he does a great job as an officer of questionable ethics here. Adria Arjona (True Detective, Triple Frontier, Andor) is more than just easy on the eyes. She did a fantastic job of portraying a character that was both strong and vulnerable, with a generous dash of calculating vixen thrown in for good measure. My favorite, however, was Glen Powell (The Expendables 3, Scream Queens, Top Gun: Maverick).

 

 

Hit Man was a massively effective vehicle for Powell to show off his range. In this one role he got to explore so many different characters. Some felt more caricature than anything, but that was by design. It's explained in the movie, so I don't want to spoil that here. Some of the little character vignettes we got to enjoy in Hit Man were clearly in homage to other cinematic hatchet men that have come before. I had a good giggle recognizing them.

 

Powell's collaboration with co-writer and director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, Last Flag Flying) really paid off and yielded a really entertaining movie that will remain memorable for years to come. Based on interviews I've seen and articles touching on this creative team-up, they had quite the good time working on this together, and I think that translates into the quality of the end-product we enjoy on screen. I hope they're able to work on something together in the future, as well.

 

If you haven't seen Hit Man yet and enjoy the action rom-com genre, I would absolutely recommend a streaming session to partake of this production as soon as you can.

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 95%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 91%

Metascore – 82%

Metacritic User Score – 6.7/10

IMDB Score – 6.9/10

 

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 5/5

 

Movie Trailer:

Before Dawn (2024)

 

 

Movie Name/Year: Before Dawn (2024)

Genre: War, Drama, History

Length: 1h 40min

Rating: R

Director: Jordon Prince-Wright

Writers: Jarrad Russell, based on the story and characters by Jordon Prince-Wright and Jarrad Russell

Actors: Levi Miller, Travis Jeffery, Myles Pollard, Tim Franklin, Jordan Dulieu, introducing Peter Sullivan, with Ed Oxenbould and Stephen Peacocke

 

Synopsis: After leaving his family’s sheep farm in the Australian outback, a young man joins his countrymen on the western front of World War I with hopes of helping expedite an end to the bloody conflict. But as war rages on, he is forced to grapple with the brutal realities of trench warfare, including a near-constant battle to keep himself alive—without leaving another man behind. 

 

Paul Walenkamp as Lieutenant Longhorn in the War/Drama/History, BEFORE DAWN, a Well Go USA release. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

 

Cat’s Point of View:

Sometimes I simply have a difficult time with war movies. I have many reasons for this. The biggest, however, is simply that they remind me of the horrors my grandfathers had to endure during WWII. While I know nothing about what my paternal grandfather's war experience was like – because he never talked about it, ever; I am generally well-versed in my maternal grandfather's war story. Well, what he was willing or able to discuss of it, at least. We discovered after his passing in February of 2001 that he had been a member of military intelligence – what that had entailed, he took with him to his grave. I know in significant detail, though, about his experience with a land-mine in Germany while his company was making a move towards a bridge. I have likely mentioned some of this before, butI can't help but reiterate. I digress...

 

Scene from the War/Drama/History, BEFORE DAWN, a Well Go USA release. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

 

My point is that I miss The Major, as his chemistry students called him, desperately. It takes a significant effort not to cry when watching movies about WWI and WWII. This is occasionally mitigated if the story unfolding on screen is particularly engaging. That wasn't entirely the case with Before Dawn.

 

While Before Dawn is a tale based on true events, it is largely a work of historical fiction. I was intrigued by the prospect of seeing a glimpse at the lives of the Australian company featured in the film and to see if there would be anything different depicted about their contribution to the WWI effort. I was also further intrigued by the snippit of trivia available that at least one of the explosions meant to replicate a barrage caused a localized 2.8 on the Richter Scale. I wondered how that would translate on-screen and if the scene that particular explosion was utilized in would be evident.

 

Levi Miller as Jim Collins in the War/Drama/History, BEFORE DAWN, a Well Go USA release. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

 

I found that I appreciated the “no man left behind” attitude and attempts by the main character, however, I don't feel like Before Dawn broke any new ground here. I can't say that I could identify that particular earth-shaking explosion – but that could be atributed to the effects team and editing to where that blended seamlessly with the rest of what was going on.

 

Unfortunately, when it comes to WWI trench warfare movies, the 2 hour war epic, 1917 (2019) already significantly broke the mold. Having watched that cinematic masterpiece, other similar depictions of that particular conflict tend to pale in comparison.

 

Paul Walenkamp as Lieutenant Longhorn in the War/Drama/History, BEFORE DAWN, a Well Go USA release. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

 

Before Dawn did a respectable job of conveying the emotional story about the horrors of war and how it impacted a small group of Aussie lads over a large span of time fighting in France. I am just not sure it will be as memorable.

If war dramas or historical fiction are your cup of tea, however, maybe give it a watch yourself to make up your own opinion on it. My own take is significantly colored by my own emotional experiences with the survivors of war.

 

Before Dawn will release in select theaters as well as hitting digital On-Demand beginning Friday, July 19^th, 2024.

 

Levi Miller as Jim Collins in the War/Drama/History, BEFORE DAWN, a Well Go USA release. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 47%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 6.2/10

 

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3./5

 

Movie Trailer: