Netflix viewers go WILD for streaming site's new number one movie hit (2024)

Netflix's newest number one film is already a certified hit and viewers can't get enough of the sexy, dark flick - deeming it the 'best comedy of the year.'

Hit Man, starring Glen Powell, 35, and Adria Arjona, 32, is currently rated a whopping 97 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes which is one of the highest rated hits on the streaming service.

The film was released in selected theaters earlier in the year and began streaming on Netflix on June 7 - and viewers can't get enough.

The movie follows Gary Johnson, played by Powell, a college professor who works undercover with the police department to pose as a hitman to catch people trying to hire a killer.

However, things get complicated when he becomes attracted to a woman Madison, played by Arjona, seeking his 'services.'

The plot is based on a true story that took place in Texas about 20 years ago, but Richard and Glen, who co-wrote the screenplay, have turned it into a romantic comedy.

This is the second project for Glen and Richard, who collaborated on 2016's Everybody Wants Some.

Since its streaming release, it has since become Netflix's number one movie in the US and earned one of the best Rotten Tomatoes scores for an original film.

Fans can't get enough, with stellar reviews rolling in.

'It's refreshing to have a film which is so breezily entertaining, thrilling, brainy, and romantic. Hit Man is cheeky, hot, and a hell of a ride,' one viewer wrote.

'The film is smart, well-acted, even better-written, and chock full of clever twists. It also may finally make Glen Powell the big star he deserves to be as he is simply terrific here from beginning to end,' agreed another.

'When you ask about the movies they do not make anymore, Hit Man is a perfect crowd-pleaser that checks off those boxes, declared another.

'This is easily the best comedy of the year in my book...' a fan praised.

The real life story of the fascinating fake hitman was documented in a 2001 Texas Monthlyarticle by journalist Skip Hollandsworth.

The piece detailed that the then 54-year-old had lived alone andneighbors believed that the unassuming bachelor, who had been married and divorced three times, had worked in 'human resources at a company downtown' and described him as 'always polite.'

However, unbeknownst to his acquaintances, Gary - who tragically died in 2023 - had a black telephone next to his bed.

He used this line to be contacted about potential new clients - whose desperation arose out of anything from turbulent marriages to failed business partnerships.

Gary would then use disguises to assume the identities of various assassins with aliases including Mike Caine, Jody Eagle and Chris Buck.

He would also offer a range of methods depending on the client with anything from car bombings, drive-by shootings and burglaries-gone-wrong on the table.

The informant was billed as 'the greatest professional hit man in Houston,' but he was actually a staff investigator for the Harris County district attorney's office who was constantly on call to play the role of a hitman day and night.

He was responsible for getting more than 60 people arrested over a 10-year period.