My Cultural Diet

In a break from his usual roles, Chuck Norris plays something of an anti-hero here. You can tell that because he sports a bad-ass mullet and drives a souped up Ford Thunderbird. Still, he’s not such an anti-hero that he won’t take time out of his busy schedule as a mob enforcer to mentor a kid who’s being harassed by racist bullies. That’s because — spoiler alert! — he’s not really a mob enforcer. He’s actually a cop who, after being left for dead by his turncoat partner, was recruited to infiltrate a violent gang and take it down from the inside. The Hitman, which was directed by Chuck’s younger brother Aaron, clearly wants to be a gritty film, but it consistently undermines itself with weird tonal shifts (e.g., the aforementioned mentoring), silly Italian, French, and Islamic stereotypes, and Joel Derouin’s slinky synth soundtrack. Also, I don’t think I saw Norris do a single roundhouse kick, which feels deeply wrong. If I’m being honest, though, Derouin’s soundtrack might be my favorite aspect of the movie. Although it often sounds like it was originally composed for a softcore porn production rather than a gritty cop thriller, it occasionally contains a wistful note that imbues the film with an existential edge… for a few moments, anyway.

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