HIT MAN (B) - Every generation gets the Brad Pitt it deserves. Glen Powell is an engaging actor, easy to look at, and he has just enough charisma to carry a movie. Here, the star of last winter's guilty pleasure "Anyone But You" re-teams with indie darling Richard Linklater ("Everybody Wants Some") for this based-on-a-true-story tale of a nerdy college professor moonlighting with the police department as a fake hit man.
Problems arise when Powell's Gary Johnson goes rogue and falls for the sexy divorcee (Adria Arjona) whom he had previously talked out of hiring him to kill her estranged husband. He stays in character as the brawny tough guy while secretly dating her, but then his police colleagues get suspicious after the woman's ex ends up shot to death. It's a clever narrative (Linklater and Powell co-wrote it), and Linklater, settling into middle age, is content to create something that's good enough for Netflix.
It's too long, at just under two hours, but Powell and a strong supporting cast manage to inject this with enough zing to make it to the finish line. Arjona is not just another pretty face; she has a good feel for verbal and physical comedy. Retta is underused as a sassy, sarcastic detective. Austin Amelio is sharp as the grungy detective who has gotten pushed aside by Gary's rising stardom as the hunky fake hit man.
You can't ask for much more from an actiony romantic comedy, even if the final 20 minutes limp to a preposterous ending. Powell takes his shirt off a lot -- what philosophy isn't that ripped? -- and he and Arjona look good simulating R-rated sex. There is surprisingly little violence, which is refreshing. Powell and Linklater had to embellish the real Gary Johnson's story in order to attempt an entertaining twist in the final reel, and that elevates this to a pretty good date-night film.
BURN AFTER READING (2008) (A-minus) -- A wonderful cast sinks its teeth into this mid-career Coen brothers romp about a couple of goofballs from a local gym getting swept into international intrigue after a CD full of classified information falls into their hands. This expertly paced farce might make you nostalgic for the days in which truly talented filmmakers -- Joel and Ethan Coen -- showed a mastery of making a movie, from beginning to end.
Frances McDormand steals the show as Linda Litzke, an average-looking middle-aged woman eager to raise money for enough plastic surgery to make her appear youthful again. Brad Pitt hams it up as Chad, the air-head personal trainer who schemes with Linda to blackmail the spook whose secrets spilled out. That spy -- actually fired by the CIA in the opening scene -- is Osborne Cox, played with juicy style by John Malkovich, whose powerful performance right from the opening scene also reminds you of a meatier era of movies.
What a cast they lead. George Clooney, actually a little flat here as a federal marshal, having an affair with Cox's wife, played by Tilda Swinton, before also falling into bed with Linda. Richard Jenkins as the gym owner who pines for his employee Linda. J.K. Simmons plays a CIA superior, and let's give a shout-out to character actor Jeffrey DeMunn who steals scenes from McDormand as her plastic surgeon.
The Coens weave an airtight plot that continues to fold onto itself, they set off a gun at just the right moment, and they generally get out of the way of their actors. A few of them can be just a little too cartoonish -- Pitt especially, though he's charming as ever -- and those indulgences might bother some viewers. This is a fun diversion sandwiched in the brothers' catalog between their masterpieces "No Country for Old Men" and "A Serious Man."
BONUS TRACK
From the closing credits of "Burn After Reading," the Fugs with "CIA Man":
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