The Point Men

Hard to believe that the director of this film was once trusted with directing some of the films in the James Bond series. This is a worse than average action film, badly written, acted and directed. The subject is of an Israeli anti-terrorist squad mistakenly targeting the wrong man, and as a result its members becoming the target of a revenge series of murders. The way the Israeli ambiance and individuals are being described is completely wrong, and the complete idealization of the Israeli side does not help. The Middle East conflict is much more complex than a good vs. bad guys gun fight, but even for an action movie there are not too many new, unexpected or interesting things to be seen. A waste of time - 3 out of 10 on my personal scale.

Rare are the authors that are able to create a vivid movie about the clashes of Israeli hitmen and Arab terrorists. 007 - veteran John Glen joined the legion of these greats with his latest feature THE POINT MEN. "Ripley Highsmith"`s script (based on Steve Hartov`s novel THE HEAT OF RAMADAN) served as an exceptional reason for the reunion of the reliable B - cast that doesn`t even warm the bench in the mainstream cinema these days. Action fans eventually got an opportunity to enjoy a pretty smart conception of heartwarming cliches from the , allegedly dead, MOSSAD - genre that was revived by an intelligent script, above average budget and Glen`s crafty direction of gunfights and car chases where bullets really hit the flesh and real cars get smashed up. No comment belongs out of this statement. There`s just home cinema for all those action buffs who craved for a good flip of an expensive Mercedes ever since McTiernan`s DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE.

I was interested in watching this film in part because it was directed by John Glen, who had directed several James Bond movies in the 1980s that I had liked. However, after watching this movie, all I could think was that Glen's status as a director had fallen greatly in the years between James Bond and this film. To be fair, Glen was working with a script that really needed a few more rewrites before filming - the opening is kind of vague, the chief villain character is kind of vague, and various plot details here and there are vague as well. Despite this inadequate script, the movie could still have been fun with some energetic direction. But the movie is slow-moving and the few action sequences really lack zip and punch. Though this may have been in part due to the low budget, which also results in the movie having a somewhat cheap look and feel that resembles low budget Canadian television shows from the 1990s. To date, this is the final movie that Glen has directed. Maybe that's for the best.

(2001) The Point Men THRILLER

Adapted from a novel "The Heat of Ramadan" by Steven Hartov which opens with a failed assassination attempt at a Palestinian terrorist led by anti- terrorist covert, Tony Eckhardt (Christopher Lambert). It turns out the intended target, Amar Kamil (Vincent Regan), and as a result of not knowing what he actually looks like, he is able to turn the tables and execute each member from Eckhardt's team.

Some of those executions conducted by the terrorist outsmarting the anti-terrorist unit was 100% avoidable, any one of them can be used as bait to lure the terrorist to them. It was dumb from the beginning.

I have seen most of Christopher Lamberts movies. I have several favourites like "Highlander 1-3" (of course, Resurrection, Fortress and "The Hunted". I think that "Fortress 2" wasn´t that good, so I really was looking forward to this movie. Lambert plays the agent Tony from Israel(!), he is hunting a terrorist with his group. They kill a guy, who they think is the terrorist but Tony is sure that they have killed the wrong dude. One by one the terrorist (with his new plasticsurgery-face) kills Tonys groupmembers. It´s easy to understand what will happen next. The filming is like they have made the film with a handycam. It is very low-budget-style when they have their carchase in the beginning of the film. Lamberts performance is very solid and I really hope that he will find a better script, because the other film he has made this year also became a sad story for us Lambert-fans. We want you back in the parts that made you the one you are today. Like in "Knight moves", "The Hunted" or "resurrection". It doesnt have to be a fantastic story like in "Beowulf" or "Mortal Kombat" but something that you can understand and still is very exciting. I can not say other than that this movie was a cheap try to make a political thriller. 4 / 10