À bout portant

Outside of Hollywood, good and realistic action films can be successful without the Hollywood Big 3 of American action films.....CGI, car chases and boo-coo explosions. And, French films always deliver when mean, harsh, brutal and uncaring play the main roles. Great looking pregnant wife, Liam Neesom-resembling husband, despicable and brutal criminals uncaring about human values and life, and brutal dirty cops even less caring about human life made this one of my faves for the year so far.

Point Blank was a 100% serious film with great pacing and no smart-ass or comedic side tracks or poorly placed romance throw-ins as are so often stupidly done by Hollywood, plus it had plenty of the most terrifying and brutal behavior of human psychopathy to scare you silly. Other than a few timing errors where the director stayed with a few scenes longer than he should have for best effect, such as the one when the dirty cop was discovered, it was a well done seat-edge thriller to the end. And, yes, we all knew how it would end, as all those horrible experiences resulted in a typical ending.......good for the good guys and bad for the baddies.

How regular people in real life could ever have more or less normal lives after all that bloody terror and murder is beyond my understanding, but somehow these film characters seemed to be able to do it.

This was a punchy, French, action based film that was quite good, but with more developed characters, could have been brilliant.

Point Blank is well paced, dramatic, entertaining and I suppose most importantly believable. A criminal escapes murder, whilst in hospital, and forces his nurse to team up with him, as he avoids the police and his killers. The reluctant nurse aids the gangster, with his kidnapped pregnant wife held captive, to escape what is a corrupt police unit. To say any more would almost spoil the plot.

PB is ambitious, true to the action-chase genre and boasts some nice French cinema, and culture elements (especially visually), but ultimately comes up short of anything other than just plain good. A refreshing spin on this sort of thing, providing a decent afternoon's viewing.

Point Blank (2010)

Not to be confused with the semi-classic 1967 movie of the same title with Lee Marvin, this is not a remake or an echo of that. What this French action thriller is fits another category--the non-stop kinetic run from the bad-guys film, which has become a kind of staple. Think the Bourne movies, or a couple later Liam Neeson films, where the hero gets himself into a terrible situation that requires running and running and running.

And that's enough, in a way, because you can't stop looking. There are no lulls. In fact, some of the moments have such kinetic surprise to them they deserve study. Your stomach will turn. Don't expect a big rationale. Don't even quite expect to care for anything except that our main man, and his wife, survive the ordeal. There are crosses and double-crosses. There is horrid abuse of women which I could do without (the rationale might just be the perils of Pauline kind of thing, saving her with the handsome male to the rescue, but it's just plain abusive). There is one female cop who is a great tough archetype. And lots of bad violent men.

But, truly, none of this is meant to matter. You just grab onto the handles and don't let go. It's really really well made, visually, the camera-work and editing taking front seat. I'd see it on the biggest screen you can, since that's where it's all at.

French cinema is well known to the audience, especially to those tending to Art film. Besides French film influence which is the reference in the field, France is also very well known as a land of the Crime genre. I am myself great fan of their Film Noir and New Wave and I am totally crazy about their crime (gangster) movies from earlier periods and contemporary as well.

French crime movies did not loose its charm even today, and almost every year there are few great titles. It comes to my mind modern director like it is Olivier Marchal which movies I like very much, but there are respectable list of other names, both directors and actors.

Point Blank movie did not disappoint, and it were a pleasure to watch it. Even the name reminds me on classic US crime movie with Lee Marvin, but it have nothing similar with it. The plot of Point Blank is good, and somehow original, even it is not hard to predicts the end, which is usual for most movie.

This is not pure crime movie, I would add that there is a bit of thriller smell in it. The actors did a good job, especially well known actor Roschdy Zem which can be seen in most of the crime movies. I am not familiar with director Fred Cavaye, but he did a good job here, and he offer us fine work in tradition of French crime cinema.

For those looking for typical Hollywood action pack, maybe it is better to look at something else, but for those that like classic action crime European movie, it is more than recommended.

I discovered this thriller ordering some good DVDs on Amazon. I thought it must not be bad with 4.5/5 stars and rating of 6.8 out 10 on IMDb. Then the running time with 80 minutes is not so long. In fact I wasn't disappointed and I spent with my wife an entertaining evening. All the actors and the director did a good job here. Some scenes were perhaps too violent and one or two sequences not very clear to follow. But if you can look away from these little flaws it works for a solid action movie. It's not the one you will talk days later but it's definitely one of the better ones you can buy or rent in this genre. Just check it out. It takes you quick on a fast paced and packed cat and mouse chase. This will take your breath away. 6/10.