In a retrospective review published in 2010, critic Leonard Maltin praised the film as a guilty pleasure, and said that "most critics despised "The Big Hit", and audiences didn't flock to see it, perhaps confused as to whether it was a comedy or an action movie ... and never dreaming it was a hybrid of the two." He also states, "it expands its ideas to such a ludicrous extreme that you can't take it seriously, and that's just what I like about it."