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I decided to roll the dice when renting POINT BLANK. My desire for a B-action film became unbearable and past experience proves that solid B-action films do exist in the direct to video market (e.g. Black Cat Run, The Guyver II: Dark Hero). Mickey Rourke is an established actor (YEAR OF THE DRAGON) who in the past years traded his legitimacy for a few inches on his bicep (I did enjoy DOUBLE TEAM however). But then the ripoffs within POINT BLANK became unbearable... Mickey Rourke plays an ex-military, ex-Texas Ranger now working for Pa who mentions to him one day that his brother is one of a group of convict escapees now holding an entire shopping mall hostage. Pa also mentions his brother's future is in his hands. An overriding theme of sentimentality plays well in the movie between the two brothers and even with some of the convicts revealing their human side. I also enjoyed the music played during these sequences. But that's about it... Paul Ben Victor (over)plays a gay ex-business man convicted of money laundering coming back to roost in his office underneath a mall, now stashed with military weaponry. Having masterminded the convict breakout, his motives conflict with the other convicts including Rourke's brother (who merely wants freedom and money....I think....the storyline gets a tad muddled here). With the ok from lead Tex Ranger in charge, Rourke makes his way into the mall and "pays homage" to many of the action movie greats of the 1990's: Martial arts by a non-martial artist, two gunmen shooting at each other between obstacles a la John Woo's Hard Boiled and Hard Target (but looking MUCH more clumsy), high floor mini gun without the dramatic punch of T2, and finally the most blatant artistic theft possibly EVER coming straight from Luc Besson's THE PROFESSIONAL (you've got to see it to believe it). Couple this with extremely sloppy editing and you've got yourself a film that maintains the reputation that direct to video films are of low quality. As an action hero, Mickey Rourke does have potential. He possesses a cool, calm bad ass quality reminiscint of an early MAN WITH NO NAME Clint. His physique compares to that of a Van Damme (of course without the grace or charisma). However, if he ever wants legitimacy as an action hero, a film of "grander" (not necessarily more expensive) proportions is needed.

The film was shot at Seminary South, a semi-closed mall in Ft. Worth,Tx, likely the cheapest location they could find. That was the primary reason I watched this film, being a local.

Letdown? That's an understatement. After hearing the local preproduction hype I was hoping for more than an outlaw version of Walker, Texas Ranger.

Sadly, I was forced to watch just that.

The writing's bad, the acting is poor and the production values are pure B-grade. But, Mickey looks like he has been spending lots of time at the gym.

This is one bad film. With clumsy editing, terrible performances and rip-offs galore! One of the major missteps is the editing. Rourke's character Rudy is a supposed "Karate Master" but when he does a roundhouse kick to a guy it first cuts to the foot then jaggedly cuts to Rourke killing him. This is Rourke's monotone years, where you need subtitles to hear what's he's saying. If you somehow hear the wretched dialogue he's reciting, mute the TV. It is better without the sound anyway. Danny Trejo gets shot like 15 times (twice in the HEAD!) and he's wearing a motorcycle jacket! Just don't watch this film unless you're having a party and everybody is drunk.

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There are actually a couple reasons to watch this movie. The first is that, while it's mindless and mind-numbing, there's actually a story and you do become involved enough to want to find out how the story ends. Second, you may actually enjoy picking out the "dumb things" and the totally improbable or impossible.

Of course, there is also the weird fascination of watching Mickey Rourke (at a mere 41 years of age) totally over-the-top with steroids and immediately after one of his face lifts. It was only 12 years earlier that Cimino's "Year of the Dragon" was released, but it seems like it was a lifetime to Mickey. (To be fair, the early 1990s were not kind to him.) YotD was not one of Mickey's best movies, but the contrast between the Mickey of 1985 and the Mickey of 1998 is almost too much to be believed.

Danny Trejo is, as always, fun to watch. Kevin Gage turns in a surprisingly good performance in what is probably the most difficult role in the movie.

I normally don't pay a lot of attention to editing in a movie (unless it's just really bad) but this movie is one of the most obviously-poorly-edited movies I've ever seen. It could be a poster-child for bad movie editing. I'm going to be generous and guess that the editor did not have enough film to work with or that the director failed to block and cover shots as he should have. But with that aside, this movie is worthwhile if only to show your friends or your date what bad editing looks like.

Four stars awarded for having some entertainment value, even if no artistic value. After all, you could have wasted your time on a J. R. Bookwalter film.

Mickey Rourke was perfect too as Rudy. The film a good action scenes and good actor's such as Danny Trejo, Micheal Wright, Paul ben-Victor,and Kevin Gage if you like escaped convicts on the loose type of movie then you will like this movie. Go check out the movie Trust me it is a execellent movie!!!!