But for the most part Armitage keeps things light, demonstrating an early preference for black comedy. I don't mean "black" comedy, like the Friday movies or Soul Plane, although the ghetto talk and fancy pimp outfits play their part in some of the movie's more outrageous moments (Casey's costume changes are almost magical, the way they occur between scenes when plot-wise there would have been no opportunity for his character to change; it happens enough that I'm sure it's not a continuity error.) Carter's sense of foreboding is maintained in Hit Man, but up until the big reveal of why Tackett's brother was killed the humor outweighs the gloom. Casey's performance for the first part of the film is slightly goofy, including a drunk scene where he slurs his speech like a dopey cartoon character (the New York Times critic at the time complained about this scene, stating that the dialogue was incomprehensible - I don't think it was meant to be.) It's an odd contradiction to his otherwise badass behavior, but it's no goofier than the behavior of the bad guys: when Tackett shoots at a tailing car, the target is chiefly upset that he almost shot his derby. His supporting cast of friends are almost all comic relief, particularly the foul-mouthed Sherwood, who Tackett leaves for the bad guys to beat up. In Carter this same character, played by Alun Armstrong, is last seen pathetically cursing Jack's name and whining about his girlfriend leaving him due to his now disfigured face; not only is the Hit Man version being pampered by a sexy broad as he recuperates from his ambush, after a few choice words with Tackett those cats part on good terms - Sherwood even laughs at Tackett's joke as he leaves! There are even excerpts of dialogue that sound more like slapstick than sexy thriller, like when Tackett shows up at a house of one of the gang bosses claiming to be a neighbor there to complain about the noise:
There's also Carter's significant guilt over the likelihood that he's the actual father of his "niece" Doreen, something that never comes up with Tackett's big fro'd niece Rochelle in Hit Man. And since the discovery of the niece's appearance in the porno movie - the reason Carter/Tackett's brother threatened to expose the gangsters and gets killed - serves as the turning point in both movies, that lack of biological attachment means Armitage has to up the ante to further vindicate Tackett's ensuing vengeance, which he does by having the chauffer shoot Rochelle in the head to keep her quiet (Doreen lives in Carter.) This happens immediately after Tackett's viewing of the film, which Armitage moves from the tiny flat where Carter goes through a torrent of agonizing emotions in front of the images projected on the wall in front of him to a packed adult theater. Thus Tackett experiences the revelation in a much more humiliating venue, with porn patrons gawking and jeering at the screen as his drugged (stated explicitly in Hit Man, not so much in Carter) niece staggers onto the set of the stag film and spreads her legs. Even though Armitage puts Rochelle's scene on as soon as Tackett enters the theater and takes away the kind of transition Carter has when he realizes what he's seeing (again this might just suffer from comparison to the original), Casey's reaction carries just as much an emotional wallop and determined intensity, with the added effect of the light from the projector flickering off his fro. It's a moment as jarring as Freddy's disastrous pawn shop heist near the end of Miami Blues or Martin's messy fight to the death with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez in front of his old locker in Grosse Pointe Blank and, like those scenes, the tone of the entire film changes after that moment. In Carter things start nasty and just get nastier, but the bad times hit like a hurricane at this point in Armitage's movie...
Pam Ghetto Confessions Torrent
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