Cole Hauser is in a bar drinking. He's seated next to Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding claims he is a hit man, and offers to kill five people for Hauser. Thinking this is nonsense, Hauser writes down his top five picks. Gooding proceeds to kill them.

You'd expect this to be a nothing film. It's surprisingly good, in no small part due to Gooding's performance as a creaky-voiced maniac fixated on Hauser, trying to teach him some sort of weird life lesson. Don't talk to strangers? Don't make wishes that other people would be dead? Take some responsibility for your life? It's not clear. Probably the writers didn't really care; Gooding's role is to be the Terminator and die. Whatever Gooding does to make us think there's some motivation behind his actions is good acting.

Allan (Cole Hauser) is having a bad day. His boss gave his promotion to a younger co-worker who stole his ideas. Allan goes home to find his wife sleeping with his best friend. Allan also has a shiner from making a bad bet and not being able to pay up. While guzzling JD at a bar he meets up with Jonas (Cuba Goodling) a Jose Cuervo man. Jonas tells Allan he is a hit man and has recently killed a conservative TV talking head. He asks Allen to make a list of 5 people he would want to have killed, and as his friend, Jonas will do it. Allen plays along, thinking this is good therapy, i.e. to make a list, but not really kill them. When Allen returns from the men's room, Jonas is gone with the list. By the time he gets to work the next day, his boss is dead.

After the second person is killed we find out Jonas is terminal and has decided to do some free lance killing. During the movie Cuba talks in broad philosophical terms, while Allan wants to stop the insanity of all the killing. The movie is embarrassingly predictable. I don't recall Goodling having such a lame role. Clearly his acting abilities were wasted as his part was designed for someone who could read lines without having to feel them. Unconvincing is perhaps the word that best describes the movie.

And when am asking that, I'm suggesting that this is a hit, but rather a remake of a movie called "The Hit". I just saw the trailer for this other movie (can be found here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263444/ and is with the actress Joanna Pacula, who some may knew from other movies) and it is stunningly how alike they look. I wonder if someone will check the connection and post it here.

But back to this one and it's strong cast. An Oscar winner (okay what movie offers didn't Cuba accept since his win?) and Cole Hauser. Still while it is intriguing (the concept that is) and the actors try their best with a script that is anything but subtle or genuinely good. There is some tension, but you'll eventually loose interest in this. If you have watched one thriller before this, you'll know where it is heading (and it doesn't have to be the one this is ripping off either)!