Riding high from the success of surprise hit Passenger 57 (1992) which established Wesley Snipes as the next big action star, you would expect that from the posters, video covers and trailers that Boiling Point would be a non-stop action packed crime thriller. Halfway through the movie I was questioning as to whether I had missed the point of the movie as why on earth was this so called action movie moving at a slow pace. And with a decent cast featuring the likes of Dennis Hopper (Speed), Lolita Davidovich (Leap of Faith), Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of The Rings trilogy), Dan Hedaya (Commando), Seymour Cassel (Indecent Proposal), Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad), James Tolkan (Back to the Future), and Paul Gleason (Die Hard) this was a movie that certainly couldn't go wrong. But it did. Boiling Point turned out to be a weak and lukewarm movie lacking any excitement let alone any interest.
Treasury Agent Jimmy Mercer (Wesley Snipes) and his partner Brady (Dan Hedaya) are involved in an undercover operation gone awry when Mercer's fellow agent is shot and killed by a young psychopathic thug named Ronnie (Viggo Mortensen) who is partnered with scam artist Red Diamond (Dennis Hopper) who organises fake money sales to rob and kill the buyers. Mercer vows revenge on the killer and swears to take down Red and Ronnie within 1 week before Mercer is transferred out of Los Angeles.
On paper the movie looks like a good popcorn action flick right? Wrong. It's more of a character driven movie that moves slower than a snail moving from Point A to Point B. I could not fault the cast whatsoever, they can't be blamed for this. Written and directed by James B. Harris (Cop) based on the novel by Gerald Petievich (To Live and Die in L.A. which is by far an underrated movie which at least had you engaged from start to finish), he has brought out a very weak movie that is a cop out for everyone expecting another Wesley Snipes actioner. Fans and audiences have every right to feel cheated.
Boiling Point was an action/crime movie that had potential with Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper in the lead roles, but the movie can be described as a situation where somebody forgot to turn the kettle on to boil the water.
It's a shame Boiling Point turned out to be nothing more than lukewarm.
4/10.
Treasury Agent Jimmy Mercer (Wesley Snipes) and his partner Brady (Dan Hedaya) are involved in an undercover operation gone awry when Mercer's fellow agent is shot and killed by a young psychopathic thug named Ronnie (Viggo Mortensen) who is partnered with scam artist Red Diamond (Dennis Hopper) who organises fake money sales to rob and kill the buyers. Mercer vows revenge on the killer and swears to take down Red and Ronnie within 1 week before Mercer is transferred out of Los Angeles.
On paper the movie looks like a good popcorn action flick right? Wrong. It's more of a character driven movie that moves slower than a snail moving from Point A to Point B. I could not fault the cast whatsoever, they can't be blamed for this. Written and directed by James B. Harris (Cop) based on the novel by Gerald Petievich (To Live and Die in L.A. which is by far an underrated movie which at least had you engaged from start to finish), he has brought out a very weak movie that is a cop out for everyone expecting another Wesley Snipes actioner. Fans and audiences have every right to feel cheated.
Boiling Point was an action/crime movie that had potential with Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper in the lead roles, but the movie can be described as a situation where somebody forgot to turn the kettle on to boil the water.
It's a shame Boiling Point turned out to be nothing more than lukewarm.
4/10.