À bout portant

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.

Yup, Point Blank is a no lulls, come-atcha action movie made all the more believable by the nice plot and superior script. No superspy here, just an everyman caught up in the wrong place & time.

And yes, there are a few plot twists that I find a bit hard to swallow, but because the protagonist is so compelling & believable, I'll take them without looking back.

I credit the editing on this movie for keeping it surgically precise. There are no breaks or falters, Point Blank keeps building towards it's action climax.

9/10 - Highly Recommended.

Smart action thrillers are rare. Rarer still is a smart action thriller that features a complex yet comprehensible (and credible) plot, characters you care about, and vivid, crisp directing. "Point Blank" is one of these rarities. It utilizes many elements of classic action films—an innocent "good guy" who unwittingly becomes caught up in a dangerous plot, a woman in jeopardy, corrupt cops, and unexpected twists. The film avoids cliché, however, and it moves along at lightning speed (total running time is about 80 minutes). The French setting is an added bonus, and the acting and editing are very well done. Subtract a star if subtitles annoy you.

This is how you make an action-packed thriller. Swift, brutal and void of any kind of silly subplots that give too much time to words when the characters should just be racing for their lives. They quickly establish the characters in a clean and effective way and then shock you by going right into the action. With a very nice 80 minute runtime the film breezes by without dragging for a moment and you really just get caught up in the exciting chaos of it all. There's definitely no reinventing the wheel here, but it stands up with Taken and Running Scared as one of the best action films to come out this past decade. It was exactly what I wanted.

There were some moments that really made me sit up in my chair just by how much of a gut punch they were; some things I definitely didn't see coming. Gilles Lellouche is a great leading man, capable of portraying both the everyman and the action star qualities of his character while still being completely believable when he has to portray the dramatic moments to keep you on his side and understanding of what he is fighting for. It's stylish as hell and is seriously just pushing it's foot to pavement for the entire running time. This is a real crowd-pleaser.

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.