Ponto Fatal

Killpoint is a standard violent action flick from the 80's. It's about a criminal gang who steal weaponry from the National Armoury and then sell it on to various hoods, while still finding time themselves to go around annihilating a variety of unfortunate people. A Chinese cop is put on the case to track them down.

This is an entertaining actioner which is somewhat rough around the edges it has to be said. It's poorly edited throughout in a manner that often doesn't make it too clear what is happening in certain scenes. But it has enough bloody violence and martial art fighting to ensure it's never boring. B movie stalwart Cameron Mitchell plays the gang lord who is combines his crime boss role with a penchant for sadistically killing women, while lovingly fawning over a small pet poodle. Richard Roundtree's name is prominent on the poster but he's hardly in it, it's more Leo Fong's movie - I hadn't even heard of him – and he puts in a stony-faced and decidedly uncharismatic performance while sporting an impressive pudding bowl haircut throughout. But best of all is Stack Pierce who plays the menacing character Nighthawk, who is Mitchell's sidekick/enforcer – he is a convincing bad ass and his performance is very committed.

On the whole this is quite middling fair though. Certainly entertaining enough but just don't expect too much.

Essentially plotless action film has two good guys (Fong and Roundtree) pitted against two bad guys (Mitchell and Pierce). Fong is perhaps the most uncharismatic action lead of the 80s, Roundtree's small part is a far cry from his "Shaft" days, and Cameron Mitchell adds another shameful role to his career, one to sit right next to his laughable turn in "The Toolbox Murders" (this man was a respected actor once, now he has come down to wearing flowers in his hair and complaining about people bleeding on his carpet). Only Stack Pierce acts with some dignity. As for the violence, don't worry: most of it is too badly done to offend anyone. (*1/2)

This movie is on the slow side for me. There's action and plot. But there's a lot of killing in it. Leo Fong plays a cop who goes after a violent gang who raped and killed his wife. Stack Pierce play the stoic gun runner and killer who hires and fires the people who have helped him. Richard Roundtree plays the Fed who helps the police find the killer. The martial arts scenes are always for me. The fight scene however is slow and stiff. Very effective.

It's not a bad movie, but it's not a good movie as well. Too many flaws. It needs a lot of work. It looked more like a documentary than a flick.

2 out of 5 stars.

My review was written in March 1984 after a Times Square screening.

"Killpoint" is a perfunctory police picture made in asemi-documentary fashion that reduces audience involvement. Prospects on the action circuit are okay.

Filmmaker Frank Harris (who takes five credits on the pic) has sought to out-do Louis de Rochemont and Jack Webb in low-key realism, but the result is dull. Dozens of members of the Riverside, California police department plus the local coroner's office and people off the street fill most of the "acting" roles, and several lead players are so ice-cold in their performances that the film seems remote instead of exciting.

Leo Fong, a Chinese-American martial arts expert, toplines as Lt. James Long, a cop troubled by his wife's rape and murder, who is assigned to work with government agent Bill Bryant (Richard Roundtree) in catching the killers who have stolen automatic weapons from a National Guard armory and are creating mayhem by selling them to local criminals and gangs. Stack Pierce portrays Nighthawk, the key gunrunner whose boss, played behind dark glasses by Cameron Mitchell, is a nut who gets his jollies torturing and killing women.

Fong, whose immoblie but strong featured visage suggests an Oriental counterpart to Woody Strode, is unimpressive, a totally unemotional nonactor. Pierce's one-note "Mr. Cool" is counter-productive, Mitchell is silly and guest star Roundtree tarnishes his "Shaft" superhero image by getting blown away in routine fashion. Technically merely adequate, "Killpoint" delivers none of the fun that once made B-features so enjoyable.

An awful sub-par thriller from Crown International Pictures, much along the lines of their follow-up LOW BLOW. It's hard to know what's worse: the quality of the martial arts fights (in which the blows are the softest ever and barely hit the opponent half of the time), or the acting from a cast slumming it throughout. The plot, in a nutshell, is about a criminal gang armed with stolen weapons who go on a killing spree through the city, leaving one tough cop to track them down.

Actually, I think the worst thing about this film is the quality of the editing. It's incredible - worse than in an Ed Wood film, for instance. One shot will have a character coming up to somebody from the left, then the next shot will see them randomly standing to the right of that person. It makes for a disconcerting viewing experience to say the least.

The production values are very poor, although at least the outdoor locations are sunny. Leo Fong gives an appalling performance in the lead role, just as he did in LOW BLOW; throughout the movie I couldn't work out what was worse, his acting or his wig. Cameron Mitchell seems drunk in his turn as the villain, and only Richard Roundtree and Stack Pierce in support give anything approaching halfway decent performances. Yes, there's some quite graphic violence in KILLPOINT and a storyline that just about passes muster, but the execution is so poor that it's a real chore to sit through.