Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

***SPOILERS*** Overlong and somewhat boring movie that takes forever to get to the point or "Hit" about this disgruntled US Government Agent Nick Allen who's out to terminate the Marselle Franch drug cartel who's responsible for his 15 year old daughter Jennie's drug overdose. That's when her drug dealing boyfriend slipped her a sample to snort on while driving her home from school. Taking a 30 day forced vacation Nick assembled a group of former victims of drug abuse and whipped them into shape in his plan to wipe out the cartel that was, as it seemed, to be protected by the both local Marselle police as well as the US Government agency that Nick works for.The movie go one for some two hours in Nick planning his "Hit" on the Marselle cartel at this out of the way and deserted fishing village outside Seattle Washington before he and the team embarks to France to get the job or "Hit" done. At one point Nick's squad of hit-men and women backed off on his plan feeling that it was too dangerous and mindless to carry out. That's until he had one of his team members former or recovering junkie Sherry Nielson who was hooked on heroin go cold turkey, by not giving her her daily fix, and about to kick off. That in preventing Sherrie from dying before their eyes had Nick's team change their minds and go along with him to sail, with him at the wheel, to Marselle and massacre the French cartel as well as it's enablers!****SPOILERS**** It's when the "Hit" finally came into execution in the last 15 or so minutes of the movie we the audience finely got its monies worth with Nick & Co. doing their thing on the bad guys all over the city in a number of bloody rub-outs that shook up the local police who for years were unable, because of the law as well as pay-offs by the cartel, to get the job or "Hit" job done.. As for Nick he was given immunity from prosecution by his boss by keeping his mouth shut, in that he was a Government Agent, in not embarrassing the local police authorities in him or the US Government, who really had nothing at all to do with it, having done the job that they were unable or not willing to do.

the plot is awful but the premise is heart felt. Substitute heroine for any vice or society's many ills and that's the "bag guy(s)" in this movie.The Hit! takes a little from each previous genre during the '70's and late '60's and twists them to such an extent that if the movie was made 40 years prior to it's release date or 30 years after, it would, could and still stands up to the test of time. You can see elements of the dirty dozen/guns of the Naverone themes. James Bond/"Get Carter" char. Shaft/inner city turmoil etc.I initially saw bits of this movie at 0'dark thirty on USA channel about 13-14 years ago. It was just before the plan's 'plot' implementation. But What kept me spellbound was seeing Billy Dee holding what I believe was a Swedish K or M-36 "pulverizer" submachine gun! I mean Billy Dee?!? Mr. Cool!?! I'd never even seen him look mean! Forget about being a assassin. But their he was.After 5 minutes I was hooked. I tried finding the movie in the stores but to no avail. I asked every retailer I could find if they had the movie. Most thought I was DELUSIONAL. They'd never heard of the movie or couldn't order it.Finally 5 years ago the movie came on AMC of all places and I could finally watch the movie in it's entirety. I wasn't disappointed. A sequel or a remake would be perfect write about now.

This si the blaxploitation version of the French Connection.A gov't agent's is devastated when his niece dies at age 15 of heroin overdose. As he pummels the dealer who sold it, (accompanied by the boyfriend who gave it to her whom he does nothing to), the dealer blabbers something about him being the low man on the totem pole, etc. Billy Dee agrees, doesn't kill him and decides to set his sights higher up the chain of command, in fact he sets the all the way at the top. Not a bad premise, but the execution and plot in general is poor. This movie is 2 hours long and it is literally over an hour before this story begins to develop. He gathers a team of people who have had drugs affect their lives and he pulls some kind of bribe on all of them to have them participate in his scheme (a scheme which is left extremely vague until the end).They travel to France where their plan is pulled off without a hitch, all of France's Heroin kingpins are murdered in various fashions. the good guys win, and we assume the US heroin trade has taken a major major hit.This could have been a good movie, were it not for so much wasted time between the plan and the execution. With some reworking this could have been really good. The acting of all of the major players was really good even when their behavior seemed unrealistic, the actors did well. A movie like Gordon's War has a better plot, and better execution, and although Hit! is the more serious film with better acting, I'd say Gordon's War has much more replay value. Partly because Hit! is a more drama than action film, I expected it to be more realistic and it certainly was not. And there is no reason why 30 minutes could not have been cut out of this film, there are so many extra scenes in this movie that are redundant or don't push the story forward.

...and in fact, Hit! is an ambitious mixture of action and character study. At 134 minutes, one might suspect the director of overweening pride, but in fact there's little in the way of flab here. Billy Dee Williams proves that he should have been a major star and Richard Pryor is, as always, brilliant. Add a terrific supporting cast (Warren Kemmerling, Paul 'They Came From Within' Hampton, Sid Munson), a host of slimy French drug dealers, and a heaping dollop of revenge for a thoroughly satisfying blast of 70s-style crime dramatics.