Needless to say, Allan needs a stiff drink, so he heads to his local watering hole where he meets Jonah (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). At first, Jonah is rude and distant, but when he hears Allan apologize for trying to be friendly and refer to himself as a human punching bag, Jonah is intrigued and the two end up drinking together for several hours. Jonah discloses to his new "friend" that he is a professional killer and if Allan merely writes out the names of five people he'd like eliminated from his life, Jonah will take care of them for him, free of charge. Now, the old alarm bells should be gonging in Allan's ears, but he's wasted and so he plays along, writing out the names of everyone who made his day (and life) so bad, starting with his boss and ending with Sydney as priority one. When Allan wakes up in his car the next day, the previous evening is a blur, but when he gets to work, he soon finds out his boss has been murdered and it all starts to come back.
From then on, Allan's life becomes a race to try to stop Jonah before he gets to the end of the list. But that task will be a difficult one, as Allan comes to realize that Jonah is actually a rogue government agent - highly trained and incredibly effective. And he's a man with his own agenda, one that means to involve Allan fully in his twisted plan. Allan is not the killing type, but he soon realizes he may have to murder Jonah to save the life of the woman he loves.
The Hit List is actually a pretty good thriller, with some nice action sequences and chase scenes thrown in for good measure. At first, I wasn't really convinced and the film seemed like it might be too formulaic, but once Jonah kicked things into gear with his "hit list," I found myself really enjoying it. Gooding is excellent in his role and really played the jaded trained assassin well, while Hauser was very easy to feel sorry for, however there were a few times when I found myself not believing his stupidity. Jonathan LaPaglia stars as the lead cop on the case and he does a competent job, but I can't help watching him and seeing his brother, Anthony LaPaglia from Without a Trace.
While there aren't any special features whatsoever, something pretty odd in this day and age, The Hit List is still worth watching. The picture was crisp and clear, but this is not the type of film that begs for high def. That being said, it looked fine, but nothing was really stunning or screamed high-def gorgeousness. I'd recommend it as a rental on Blu-ray or DVD if you are looking for a good action-y thriller.
