Spinning 180 degrees from his usual clean-cut cop character, Lou Diamond Phillips becomes a street-punk bad boy in The Big Hit. He is a back-stabbing jerk who will kill his best friend to keep his own rear out of a sling.

Four hitmen working as a team for a major crime boss, Paris (Avery Brooks), decide to make a little extra money by kidnapping the daughter of billionaire Jiro Nishi (Sab Shimono). They do not know that Nishi just lost all of his money on a big movie that bombed and he is filing bankruptcy. They also do not know that his daughter is Paris's goddaughter.

They decide that Keiko Nishi (China Chow) will have to stay at Melvin's house. But his fiancee Pam (Christina Applegate) has invited her parents, Morton (Elliot Gould) and Jeanne (Lainie Kozan), for dinner. So he plans to leave Keiko with his girlfriend-on-the-side, Chantelle (Lela Rochon).

Crunch (Bokeem Woodbine), Cisco (Lou Diamond Phillips), Vince (Antonio Sabato Jr.) and Melvin (Mark Wahlberg) pull off the kidnapping without a hitch and get Keiko safely transported to Chantelle's house. When Cisco makes the demand for ransom, Nishi calls Paris and Paris orders Cisco to find and kill the kidnappers. Cisco gets their electronics expert friend to finger Melvin, then Cisco kills the guy and goes after Melvin with three vans loaded with heavily armed men.

Meanwhile, Chantelle has brought Keiko to Melvin's house and they are falling in love. Crunch calls to warn him that Paris has sent a small army, led by Cisco, to kill him. And Pam is debating whether or not she can upset her parents by marrying a man who is not Jewish.

If you like action, The Big Hit is for you. It has a mind-boggling amount of fighting, gun battles, car chases and explosions. These hit men have the latest gadgets. Melvin's garage workshop will blow your mind.

The stunts are amazing. Some of these moves are unusual and inventive, such as when Melvin is spinning on his back, like a break dancer, and rolls onto his stomach without interrupting his shooting. What a neat move! Of course, there are martial arts and regular street fighting. In one scene, Cisco and Melvin totally wreck the inside of a building.

The camera work is fair, although it gets a bit jerky during a couple of the action scenes.

The acting is great. Phillips goes over-the-top with his bad boy character and pulls it off with complete credibility. It is hard to believe this is the same guy who plays the clean-cut, opera-loving cop in Bats or the federal agent in Route 666 or the almost-nerdy city slicker cop in Hangman. He has definitely played enough variety in characters to prove his versatility as an actor.

The Big Hit is an above-average action film with a strongly dramatic storyline. It is well written and acted, and delivers extreme entertainment from beginning to end.