The Kill Point

My husband and I really like this program. We cannot wait for each episode to find out what happens next. The writing is better than a lot of TV shows today, the acting is good, and the suspense level is high. As an English teacher, I love that Wahlberg's character cannot stand poor grammar. The fact that the lead bank robber, Leguizamo, is a bank robber with a heart and feelings reminds me that this is only a TV show and not reality. Although the bank robbers are former solders who served in Iraq, I am sure they will be dealt with on a terrorist-type level. There are enough twists and turns to keep my interest and make me want to tune-in every week. Boo to the nay sayers! Keep it going.

I was channel surfacing one night and fell headlong into this film. The reason I stayed and checked it out was due to the explosive action and the quick developing drama. Pulling up a chair, I continued to watch as it looked interesting and the major character was someone I recognized immediately from other action movies. I eventually gleaned from the episode that a group of Iraq Era Ex-soldiers has assembled and planned to rob a bank. Their leader was known as Mr. Wolf (John Leguzamo) That immediately gave me reason to return for the next episode. The good guy of the movie was also a notable actor in his own right. The Captain of the S.W.A.T team and main negotiator was known as Cali Horst (Donnie Wahlberg). They along with several other notable actors made the series plausible and entertaining. What developed in the story however was a character creating situation which continued to evolve into a rather standard and dull situation. From modern directors I expect something different. This film started out reminiscent of "Ocean's Eleven" but soon froze into a 'Petrified Forest' remake. It also contains several plastic stereotypes, which bent over backwards trying not to insult any religious, ethnic, or sexual element. After watching the last episode, I was wrong in my initial assessment. Had it not been for Leguzamo, this movie would have been written off as "Same Old, Same Old.' As it is, he made it worth finishing, disappointing as it was. ***

A quiet working day in the centre of Pittsburgh is momentarily disrupted when a group of masked armed men walk into a bank and, with ruthless efficiency rob it and leave within minutes. However a passing cop, a security van and an FBI agent all come together at the wrong moment for the gang and the result is a gun battle in the street. Retreating back into the bank, the groups leader, Mr Wolf immediately sets up a hostage situation and prepares to defend the bank. Outside, Police negotiator Horst Cali learns that he is facing a group of Iraq veterans and political pressure starts to mount on him and his working style.

This got a bit of a mention in The Times and Guardian and it made me decide to check it out. Although it was not brilliant, the show was short enough both in terms of running time of each episode (if you forward the adverts) and the overall season (eight episodes). To be honest the main thing that grabbed me about it was that it does seem to have been somewhat of an acting "busman's holiday" for a chunk of the cast of HBO's brilliant The Wire. Sadly the overriding thought in my head seeing so many of them together in one place was that it is genuinely unlikely any will ever have work that good again, but still it was nice to see them. On The Kill Point itself, the series throws the viewer right into the bank job and the first episode is pretty frantic. In the style of 24 it tries to keep this up and some episodes do really well on it, but it does have frequent and clunky dips in pace that frustrate.

These aside, it must also be said that the whole series is not quite a great example of how to maintain pace and deliver within a thriller. The themes surrounding Iraq are held up like billboards rather than woven into the story and characters and likewise some emotional content is ham-fisted in delivery and just serves to suck dramatic tension out of the series rather than increasing it by adding depth. That said it still functions at a level that the majority will find distracting, if never really gripping. The direction gives proceedings tension but somehow never nails "urgency" in the way that I wanted.

The cast back up the "solid but not special" feel that the whole thing has, with reasonable performances from reasonable actors. Leguizamo leads the cast well with the strongest performance and character, getting the conflict and urgency in his character. Wahlberg is nearly as good when given the material but his grammar pedantry is nonsense (his own dialogue is full of "less" instead of "fewer" and such) and it is a crass quirk that doesn't work. Davidson is satisfyingly unhinged and works well with Grillo's incredibly buff (and I say this as a straight guy) and charming performance. The Wire's Fitzpatrick and JD Williams are both good but don't have much to do – the latter in particular quite hard to watch as he doesn't have a lot to get his teeth into in the way he did in The Wire. Although really this could be said of all of them but not in the same way. Hyatt has more time on screen than in The Wire (where she was Avon's sister) but she is not that good with it and she cannot get her character to work. Conversely Michael Williams seems to be unable to escape the wonderful character of Omar, although fan that I am, this is not a bad thing really. He has dialogue that could have been given to Omar (with a bit of tightening) but for the majority of the series he appears to be in his own show, totally detached in terms of plot and material from the rest of the goings-on! Enough "The Wire" chat though, I am conscious that I am already a bore on the subject, but the connection does add a novelty value to this show that it probably doesn't deserve. On its own terms, The Kill Point doesn't totally work but it has enough trash appeal to just about make it worth seeing if you want a couple of months of disposable distraction. It is far from being Dog Day Afternoon (although it has a touch of that), it lacks the urgency and pace of 24 (when it is good) and the writing lets it sag far too often for its own good but for the undemanding viewer it might just do the job.

ironically this and the negotiator were on the same night, both written by the same writer and both kick ass, dialog between Donnie

and john is very cool sounding and enjoyable, also the action is pretty fun, kinda has a heat feel to it and point break but u really seem to get to know and understand the robbers and the police and feel for them i don't get the feeling of a generic back robber movie, maybe thats because this is a TV movie, and they can suck, but who knows they seem to have improved with TV (anyone catch burn notice THAT SHOW ROCKS) and action TV seems to be on a rise, thank god,so for good action and good characters watch this while its still on, for it is a limited series

this is an enjoyable series--well worth the watch. and if you want to put it in Hollywood lingo, then it is a 21st century "dog day afternoon", without the Attica chant. and if you don't know that film--see it. that's the meat of the series, but after viewing some decent twists in the middle, the end turns into a broke down copy of "heat".

and after watching a couple of episodes, it becomes obvious why the two leads went for this project: the writing and lead parts are exactly what mature actors dream of, and the producers must have convinced them that the small budget would be seen on the screen, and not end up on producer's expense accounts.

i'm an old recon marine, and some of the early tactical stuff had me cringing. but this can be partially discounted by the bandits being regular grunts and not trained for speed, but when the sarge called former marines--soldiers--throughout the series, i about soiled my sheets. we don't do that. we are not ordinary soldiers. i know. i was in the army and the marines.

but again, this is a great series--that is if you're into realistic television. it has many flaws: like dumping a cop in a populated area when he could have been dumped, blindfolded in the woods and thwarted the outcome; and whenever a killshot was needed and should be made by pros, they all shot as badly as the comedic, t.v. A team; and then there's the female vet/swat officer who acts like she was a three tour grunt who knifed tangos in their sleep for fun, instead of realistically being a truck driver who had a rifle in the cab too dirty to fire; and then there was the story's massively overworked murphy's law of extraction; and also the military insignia worn on swat gear (which would be a p.r. death to a police department), most probably used, against technical advice, as a time-saving Hollywood device so the viewers could identify officers wearing gas masks later in the show.

but throughout the strong points fully outweigh the weak. there is well fledged character development. and that is very hard to find. and all good springs from competent writing, a series time frame to grow in, and a production team dedicated to the project. despite obviously disregarding adviser input.

one of my favorites about this series is that it was not produced to go beyond one season--and then only eight episodes. that took balls. look how far they elongated "prison break", now there was a one season show extended over and over again because the ratings were strong.

and how the hell did it show up on spike? it may have been produced first then put up for sale--and spike was the only one ready to buy for the right price--or it may have been flatly rejected because it was too short for a series, and too long for a mini series, and since it fits neither.... anyway, what a shame, and this shows the limited vision of network t.v. executives.