Point Blank

Film: Point Blank [2010, france]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles at New Beverly
Who with: loner style
Rating: ****
Rating for watching movies at New Beverly with no talking/texting: a million stars!

I'm finally off the zero movies in Los Angeles mark. It took a recent French thriller and a theatre only a ten minute walk from my apartment to get me out of my drought, but I'm glad I ventured to the theatre as Point Blank is an adrenaline rush that doesn't let off the gas pedal the entire movie. In 2007, one of my favorites was another French thriller called Tell No One, and a few years later, the French have nailed this genre again with the gripping, edge of your seat Point Blank. It's not quite on the level that Tell No One is, but it's a fun blast of entertainment, offering up twists, chases, shootouts and violence. Everything you want in a good thriller.

The film has a simple premise that gets the full-throttle treatment form director Fred Caveye. A nurse witnesses an attempt on an unknown man's life during the night, he foils the attempt, but draws himself and his pregnant wife into the criminal lair. Wife gets kidnapped and the nurse must begin to desperately do what the kidnappers ask him to do if he wants to see his wife again. As he gets deeper into the mix of danger, violence and lack of knowledge of if his wife is alive, he gets more and more desperate and will cross the line if that's what it takes to rescue his wife.


Point Blank's opening seconds start with a chase through the darkened Parisian streets. This is a sign of what is to come as there are a lot of good chase scenes throughout the film. Don't expect any vehicle chases though, these are strictly of the variety of men running from pursuers through buildings, narrow alleys, hospitals and other urban environments. Like a lot of thrillers, there are some moments in Point Blank when you think--what?--as plot holes begin to appear in the story, but this is a genre that can survive plot holes if it is riveting enough. Point Blank is certainly that as I watched it with a quickened pulse. Maybe it was so effective due to the fact I haven't watched any movies lately? No, it is a good movie and recommended if you like gritty thrillers. I nearly posted the trailer, but thought, like most trailers, it gives away too much of the story. To not spoil the twists, Point Blank is best appreciated cold.

***Footnote. This is the second movie I've watched at New Beverly Cinema and in two screenings let me tell you how many times I saw someone text or heard someone talk during the movie: zero. That's right. Two entire films with neither of those abominations to the theatre going experience. How absolutely refreshing!