L'extrême limite

My review was written in April 1993 after a screening in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

Promoted as a hard-action film for Wesley Snipes fans, "Boiling Point" turns out to be an old-fashioned police procedural. Low-key and bland in the extreme, it's strictly for film buffs, though Snipes should ensure a strong first-week sampling among action enthusiasts.

Disappointingly, writer-director James B. Harris ("Cop"), in his zeal to re-create the mood and character acting of 1940s film noir, seems to have forgotten about excitement and visual flair.

Snipes toplines as a U. S. Treasury agent partnered with Dan Hedaya. The third T-man on their stakeout is killed by ruthless thug Viggo Mortensen, who gets away with his partner Dennis Hopper before the feds can close in.

Because of the fatal snafu, Snipes is reassigned from Los Angeles to Newark. He holds out for one week's time to catch the killers; coincidentally Hopper is given a week to find the $50,000 he owes gangster Tony LoBianco.

Loaded with false irony, Harris' mechanical script emphasizes the parallel lives of the two main characters to an almost laughable extent. Throughout the picture, Snipes keeps running into Hopper, neither knowing one is methodically hunting for the other.

Because of terrific acting down to the smallest role, one's interest is maintained despite the minimalist direction and lack of story twists. Particularly through Mortensen's careful underplaying, the film builds suspense and a sense of dread, but it never pays off.

Hopper's Red Diamond is a memorable small-time rogue who's a romantic at heart. Snipes is stuck in a one-dimensional role. Valerie Perrine is touching as the woman Hopper once put out on the street to pay his debts. Lolita Davidovich, as Snipes' ex-flame turned hooker, has little to work with in a patently unbelievable part. Seymour Cassel and Jonathan Banks are on the money as criminal types.

Pic looks nondescript. The soundtrack makes repeated use of Johnny Mercer's lovely standard "Dream".

The film begins with Red Diamond, an ex-con(Dennis Hooper),recently freed from jail . He along with Ronnie(Viggo Mortensen), his pal from prison, undergo a new business, an operation about money forgery. But the issue go wrong and Ronnie murders an undercover agent. His partner a two-fisted named Jimmy Mercer(Wesley Snipes) together with another policemen(Dan Hedaya) swear discover the killer. Meanwhile, Red Diamond deals with mobster(Tony Lo Bianco) whom he owes some money. The story continues the trail some people after another attempting to get close over tracks of Red and Ronnie and there relationships with girlfriends(Valerie Perrine, Christine Elise) and lovers(Lolita Davidovich).

The picture contains action, suspense, several shootouts, bloody killings and lots of violence. It's exciting and tense, at time no too much interesting cop thriller. The story is plenty of firepower, intrigue, action packed and good performances. Wesley Snipes is fine as tough cop and excellent Dennis Hooper as likable delinquent and Viggo Mortensen as cold killer.Magnificent secondary cast with a plethora of known actors, such as Seymour Cassel, Tony Lo Bianco,James Tolkan, Jonathan Banks, Paul Gleason, among others. Atmospheric musical score made by means of synthesizer and fitting to action by John DÁndrea and Cory Lerios. The motion picture is written and directed by James B Harris. He's a notorious producer, he produced Stanley Kubrick's three awesome films(The killing, Paths of glory and Lolita)and occasionally director of thrillers(Cop, Fast walking)and another genres(Bedford incident). Rating : Acceptable and passable. The movie will like to Wesley Snipes fans and thriller buffs.

Not one for the awards shows, but still an interesting thriller as Wesley Snipes is a good guy this time and he is after the one who killed an undercover cop.

Need a sleaseball? Just whistle and here comes Dennis Hopper. Hopper as a con man is the most believable character he can play. For a partner, he has the young Viggo Mortensen.

There was a lot of support from some beautiful women like Lolita Davidovich and Valerie Perrine and Christine Elise. Just a little eye candy when the film dragged a bit.

Fair Snipes vehicle.

Everything about the movie screams "average". i believe that the only reason the film manages to stay average and doesn't dip into "sub-par" is because of the cast.

Snipes isn't intense enough, and you never really feel his emotions that he REALLY wants to get "the bad guys". Hopper doesn't seem evil enough to be a bad guy. Hopper's sidekick in the film is the most "evil", and even he isn't really THAT much of a bad guy, but is more or less duped into doing Hopper's work for him.

The film is a typical revenger flick. Snipe's partner in the force is killed and Snipes of course trys to bring whoever did it down. There's no intensity though, as the film moves slowly and there really isn't much action.

The plot twists aren't here...as there aren't any. this is a typical bare bones cop movie, but without any gun play or raw emotions to make it any more exciting than the usual fair. The big name cast saves this flick...saves it from being horrible, and makes it only average and watchable, but nothing more.

RATING: 4.5/10

With everyone battling each other over this movie, I just had to put my own say in it as well.

Boiling Point is a movie that I got for free on a giveaway shelf. There's a reason it was on that shelf.

Boiling Point has less action than any other Wesley Snipes movie I've ever seen. A documentary about real boiling points would've had more thrills than this wannabe actioner.

Almost nothing about this movie made me want more. Wesley Snipes put on an okay performance, but nothing more than marginal. Dennis Hopper acted weird the whole movie with over-exaggerated hand movements that made his character very off-putting. Except for a few killings, there was literally no action in this movie. The story could've been interesting, but instead it moves slow and lags at many places. The cinematography was nothing interesting, no better than any other average movie. And the script was dull and didn't move the story at all.

Overall, this movie was well beyond average, not Snipes best at all. Even The Art of War (and we all want to forget he was in that) wasn't as bad as this movie. This movie has already found its way to giveaway shelves and $.99 bins all over the country. Take that as a warning.

HandHStudios Rating: 2.5/10