With sweaty pecs taut and tool belts -- loaded with Beretta 9 mm's -- slung low on their hips, they exchange high fives, mutter their mantra, "Word is bond, man!" then emerge shooting to kill.

For the four gun-toting actors -- Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, Antonio Sabato Jr. and Bokeem Woodbine -- portraying these hitmen in the film-in-progress, The Big Hit, is "too much fun," says Sabato, a former squeaky clean Melrose Place regular.

"It's a total thrill," agrees Woodbine, "to pick up a gun and shoot at people, but not really hurt them. It's everything you wanted to do as a kid."

An action-comedy about a motley crew of charismatic contract killers who mess up (think Pulp Fiction meets Grosse Pointe Blank), The Big Hit, shooting here 'til mid September, is a bang-'em-up flick with a foreign flavor.

With humor that's "side-splittingly funny," says Phillips, and action sequences that flow "lyrical and poetic," it veers off the usual bad guy bent.

"It's not going to look like your typical American movie where someone shoots a guy, and that's it," explains Warren Zide, co-producer with actor Wesley Snipes, "it will have that Hong Kong feel to it -- a real style. These hitmen can really move."

Envisioned by Hong Kong director Kirk Wong and executive produced by action man John Woo (Face/Off) on a modest $13-million budget, it's also a variation on an apparent new trend: the hitman with a heart of gold.

"You root for these guys," says Zide. "They're so likable and cool and funny, you wanna hang out with them. And it's not like they're killing good people like you and me," he adds, "they're killing the bad guys."

Outside, on break from the spray of bullets, Sabato, 25, is causing a stir, of the lady-killer kind.

With teenaged girls swarming and beefy security guys hovering, Sabato is pulling at his flimsy tank top to reveal an assortment of tattoos decorating his biceps.

"This one means love," he says, pointing to a pink, fleshy one, "and this one means 'live for today'..."

Playing Vince, the 'ladies man,' isn't too far off the mark for the actor, aka the Calvin Klein underwear model on billboards everywhere.

"There's one scene where he goes up to this woman who's all shaken up after her friend's been shot and there's blood all over," he says, "he asks her for her phone number -- and gets it!" "I've met a lot of these guys growing up in New York and Philly," says the Italian-born actor. "I've seen them for real."

Covering ethnic and racial bases with "a black man, a white man, an Italian man and a Hispanic," says Sabato, the movie's team of hitmen is a machismo mosaic.

Newcomer Woodbine (Dead Presidents) is Crunch, a "narcissistic, misogynistic masturbator who's come to the conclusion that women are more of a hassle than they're worth," laughs the 24-year-old, who did a lot of punching bag prep work to acquire the required killer instinct.

Sworn off women, Crunch tries to "spread the gospel" to the fellas, he says, "with no success. "I think the film brings a realism to the mysteries that surround hitmen," says Woodbine. "Other than the fact that they're murderers for hire, a lot of them are probably regular guys with regular problems."

Wielding weapons was par for training, and he emptied regular rounds at an L.A. shooting range to perfect his aim.

"I used to have a slight fear of guns," he admits. "Shooting got me over it and gave me a feeling of control. I'm actually a pretty good shot," he boasts.

No stranger to a Smith and Wesson or a high-testosteroned movie set, Phillips, 35, shot Young Guns -- co-starring Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen -- in Toronto in 1988.

This time, his gunslinger, Cisco, the senior "mastermind" of the group, is a quirky collision of "Rosie Perez meets Dennis Rodman," he laughs.

"He likes to fancy himself a Don Corleone or De Niro in The Untouchables ... or Scarface. He's probably watched those movies time and time and time again," says Phillips, going into character.

"That's me, baby. I'm it. I'm on top of the world, man, ya know what I'm sayin'?"

"He's a hip-hop-hitman with aspirations of grandeur."

But Phillips can't say any more about the plot, he hints.

"Or I'd have to kill ya."

Known for dramatic roles like Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, Phillips, the designated prankster on set, says Hit will expose his funny side, never before seen on screen.

"Not a whole lot of audiences have seen it in Hollywood," he says (he just finished a year-and-a-half run of The King And I on Broadway), "but I'm pretty darn goofy."

We'll see more than his funny bone, though, in a locker room scene where the bang gang bare their butts.

"My wife, who certainly appreciates my derriere, said to me: 'You're not going to show your butt next to Antonio and Mark, are you?!'" laughed Phillips.

"I mean, she's right," he says, as his co-stars saunter by in snug jeans. "Look at those bums!" he points.

"But the beauty of it is, you only see mine for a second," he says, "so there's no time to freeze-frame and compare."

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