ViewGuide

Created Sep 08, 2011 08:35PM PST • Edited Dec 01, 2018 09:28PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Point Blank – a thriller on rails – pauses briefly in 84 minutes of run time, but only briefly. Otherwise it propels forward, crazed yet plausible in the moment.

   The big picture is insane, of course. A male nurse and his gorgeous wife revel in the impending birth of their first child, notwithstanding her high risk pregnancy. Suddenly he gets forced into a wild crime spree, springing a master criminal from the hospital where he works, then running from the cops, some of whom are corrupt. And that’s just the first reel.

   Insane though the story may be, the good guy pressed into criminal activity makes all the believable screw-ups that a normal person would make, grounding the movie time and again.

   The master criminal? That’s him in the French poster above. À bout portant? Point Blank en Français.

   France produces its fair share of first rate thrillers, this being the latest. Though it moves quickly, the dialogue is fairly minimal, making the subtitles easy to follow.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   The interplay between Roschdy Zem’s master criminal and Gilles Lellouche’s desperate everyman makes the movie.

   Gérard Lanvin reeks of edgy gravitas, ideal for the heavy. Claire Perot’s wizened eyes speak volumes as his rival.

   Elena Anaya is adorable as Gilles Lellouche’s imperiled wife. Interestingly, both she and Lellouche had prominent roles in Mesrine: Killer Instinct, a real life French thriller.

   The real fun is speculating who will play their roles in the inevitable Hollywood remake? Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks played husband and wife in The Next Three Days, a remake of the creators’ previous movie. Bring ‘em back. For the master criminal, how about Jamie Foxx, given his convincing turn as Motherfucker Jones in Horrible Bosses. It’s cliche to suggest De Niro for the heavy, but who’s better? Finally, Joan Allen as the police captain opposing De Niro. Worthy cast.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    A Hollywood remake is in the cards for À bout portant if history is any guide. Its writers, Fred Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans, and director, Cavayé again, created Anything for Her three years ago, which got made into last year’s very good Russell Crowe thriller The Next Three Days. Point Blank follows the same man-saving-wife hyper-reality formula, no less effective the second time around.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Great 4.0

    Music propels the thrilling scenes time and again, heavy on the beat. It’s the kind of music that raises your heartbeat even when a scene proves to be a ruse.

    Would have rated the overall music even higher than Great were it not for the awful song playing over the end credits.

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    The gritty Parisian locations in this film aren’t in any guidebook.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Brutal 2.6

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.2

    One plot device is very au courant: cleverly using a flash mob looting spree to divert the police. However, this doesn’t seem so cute in light of England and Philadelphia’s recent experiences.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.4

23. Biological Surreal 2.9

    One shot of adrenaline and a severely wounded guy snaps out of a coma to become a fearsome fighter. OK then…

24. Physical Glib 1.4