All Critics (56) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (5)
[A] finely calibrated French neonoir.
All right, this is how to make a thriller: Start with a situation of astonishing difficulty and emotional weight. Then multiply. And keep piling on.
If the storyline doesn't amount to much more than B-movie leftovers, there isn't an ounce of fat on them.
Frantic, violent and unrelenting, it is all of a piece, its tightly packed storytelling making cassoulet of its own implausibilities and familiar terrain covering a web of political and institutional conspiracy.
This is the kind of movie where you get involved first and ask questions later.
"Point Blank" keeps the adrenaline flowing well past the point at which viewers stop hoping for twists they can't predict.
With crackerjack pacing and a driven, no-frills script that brings the whole thing to a lean close in under 80 minutes (sans credits), Point Blank is an adrenalin-driven shot to the arthouse scene.
With the relative success of "The Next Three Days," "Point Blank" will be Americanized in the near future. Do not wait for that film, though, when you can see the entertaining original.
Though Cavay? roots his action in atmospheric detail, and Lanvin's malice and Zem's tenacity help stabilize the narrative chaos, absurdity prevails...
This kind of lean and unadorned approached to the action-thriller is what's missing from most of the bloated American entries in the genre.
On a scale of 10, this is an 11.
The cure for the common thriller - an adrenalized chase that starts with a bang and just builds from there.
Its innocuous title recalls a Steven Seagal flick, sure, but this frenzied French thriller is more rooted in humanistic impulses and recognizable motivations than most of its skull-cracking American brethren.
...a breathlessly paced French thriller that doesn't let up from its opening frame to its satisfying coda.
Two sublimely sinister lead performances put this action thriller one step ahead of the pack.
Paris has served as the backdrop for several superb revenge flicks recently, such as 'Taken,' 'District B-13' and 'From Paris with Love,' and this adrenaline-fueled thriller measures up well in comparison with the best of the genre.
A genre gem that deserves a cross-quandrant embrace.
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