Point Blank
Point Blank
R | 15 December 1998 (USA)
Point Blank Trailers

Convicted corporate criminal Howard engineers a prison break as he and a number of fellow inmates are being transferred to a new facility. The escapees storm a shopping mall and take a group of shoppers hostage (after killing many more of them) before making their demands. Only Rudy, a former mercenary and brother of one of the fugitives, can take out the criminals before more of the hostages die.

Reviews
The Grand Master

To sum up my entire review of Point Blank, this is a poor man's version of Die Hard. In fact, amongst the many various Die Hard blueprints, Point Blank is certainly one of the worst movies. Point Blank is basically Die Hard in a Shopping Mall. Not a bad idea, but this movie fails miserably.Point Blank is about a group of convicts who have broken out of prison led by Howard played by Paul Ben-Victor (The Wire, Entourage). Amongst the convicts include Wallace played by Danny Trejo (Heat, Con Air, Machete) and Howard Ray played by Kevin Gage (famously known as Waingro from Heat and other roles such as Blow and G.I. Jane). The convicts take over a shopping mall in Fort Worth, Texas and take many of the shoppers hostage as well as leaving behind a large bloodshed. It's up to an ex-cop turned mercenary Rudy Ray played by Mickey Rourke (Angel Heart, Nine 1/2 Weeks) who is a poor clone of John McClane, to save the hostages from the murderous convicts as well as save his misfit brother Howard Ray from being killed.As I said before, this is certainly a poor version of Die Hard and amongst the brutal violence and unnecessary nonsensical scenes, this movie is terrible. I gave this movie a chance but upon seeing this movie, I realised far too late that I had made a big mistake in hiring this direct to video rubbish. I just lost interest in how the movie ended as it just got worse as the movie continued on.There are better action movies out there, and there are certainly superior versions of Die Hard out there. Avoid this movie.1/10.

... View More
juhakoo

This is a very bad movie.The actors seem to be on drugs, the action scenes are unspeakably clumsy and the plot virtually non-existent. There is a lot of sadistic and unnecessary violence featuring weird slow-motion scenes, which could be intended to cover up Mickey Rourke's slow, bulky moves. There are also terrible sentimental scenes where the convicts tell their life stories in a weepy voice.Above all this nonsense a lot of boring guitar music plays in the background. In one scene, where a dying man goes nuts with a Gatling gun while thinking about his wife, the music choice is "Silent Night"... It is almost too absurd to speak of.All in all, this movie is a horrible shame to everybody involved. But even the worst movie can be good in an appropriate situation: Watch this in good company when having a hangover, and there is no end to the joy. This could also be good when drunk, but I couldn't forgive myself if I rented this a second time.

... View More
stephen niz

A bunch of escaped criminals take over a shopping centre. One of them is a genuinely nice guy, so his well-meaning brother Rudy Ray (Mickey Rourke) infiltrates the shopping centre to save him. Still reading? If you were expecting a good film, you've got the wrong POINT BLANK. It's terrible - plain and simple.It was Greil Marcus, talking about Rod Stewart, who famously declared: `rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely'. Of course, the phrase could be aptly used to describe Mickey Rourke. The finest actor of the 1980's (Angel Heart, Barfly, Prayer for the Dying, White Sands, Rumble Fish, 9 1/2 Weeks) always lives up to expectations. Unfortunately, expectations of Mickey Rourke are not what they once were. A string of embarrassing pictures led to a self-imposed retirement. On return, his fortunes have not improved.If this reads like a career obituary, that's not the intention. Fingers crossed that a Soderbergh, Tarantino or Ferrara can resurrect his fallen star. Anything - absolutely anything - to spare us any more films as bad as POINT BLANK. It's a juvenile action romp, so gleeful in its stupid, sadistic violence it's almost unbearable to watch - and certainly impossible to enjoy.If it hurt Mickey to have his scenes removed from Terrance Malick's THIN RED LINE, or even DOUBLE TEAM, it seems his role has been reduced here too. He fades in and out of the action - perhaps he's trying to hide in the background. Either way, the results are inevitable, and nobody - least of all Rourke - could care less.It's not just that it's been done a million times better. The shoddy logic of the filmmakers is inane beyond comprehension. (a) The crime kingpin decides to sedate a frenzied psycho-rapist by giving him a whole brick of cocaine to snort. (b) After tormenting a female hostage, she then willingly performs a private sex-show for the pervert. (c) After the striptease he takes her out on the balcony and shoots her in full view of the surrounding cops. (d) He achieves the incredible feat of actually snorting the whole brick of cocaine in ninety minutes.That's just one incident that doesn't bear close scrutiny. The writer and director clearly revel in sex/drugs indulgence, and it comes out just as dubious as one would expect. There's dramatic license, but then there's a police force that idly watches as hostages are randomly executed.And let me assure you my vote of one for this film is no knee-jerk reaction. I tried - and failed - to watch it twice. But much like Mickey Rourke in the ring, his audience has a habit of coming back and suffering again and again.

... View More
steve-545

I decided to roll the dice when renting POINT BLANK. My desire for a B-action film became unbearable and past experience proves that solid B-action films do exist in the direct to video market (e.g. Black Cat Run, The Guyver II: Dark Hero). Mickey Rourke is an established actor (YEAR OF THE DRAGON) who in the past years traded his legitimacy for a few inches on his bicep (I did enjoy DOUBLE TEAM however). But then the ripoffs within POINT BLANK became unbearable... Mickey Rourke plays an ex-military, ex-Texas Ranger now working for Pa who mentions to him one day that his brother is one of a group of convict escapees now holding an entire shopping mall hostage. Pa also mentions his brother's future is in his hands. An overriding theme of sentimentality plays well in the movie between the two brothers and even with some of the convicts revealing their human side. I also enjoyed the music played during these sequences. But that's about it... Paul Ben Victor (over)plays a gay ex-business man convicted of money laundering coming back to roost in his office underneath a mall, now stashed with military weaponry. Having masterminded the convict breakout, his motives conflict with the other convicts including Rourke's brother (who merely wants freedom and money....I think....the storyline gets a tad muddled here). With the ok from lead Tex Ranger in charge, Rourke makes his way into the mall and "pays homage" to many of the action movie greats of the 1990's: Martial arts by a non-martial artist, two gunmen shooting at each other between obstacles a la John Woo's Hard Boiled and Hard Target (but looking MUCH more clumsy), high floor mini gun without the dramatic punch of T2, and finally the most blatant artistic theft possibly EVER coming straight from Luc Besson's THE PROFESSIONAL (you've got to see it to believe it). Couple this with extremely sloppy editing and you've got yourself a film that maintains the reputation that direct to video films are of low quality. As an action hero, Mickey Rourke does have potential. He possesses a cool, calm bad ass quality reminiscint of an early MAN WITH NO NAME Clint. His physique compares to that of a Van Damme (of course without the grace or charisma). However, if he ever wants legitimacy as an action hero, a film of "grander" (not necessarily more expensive) proportions is needed.

... View More