Point Blank

[Amazon Link]
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[4.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

This is a weird little movie, based on The Hunter, the first novel in the "Parker" series by Donald Westlake (writing as Richard Stark). Lee Marvin plays a renamed protagonist, Walker, who's been betrayed and shot by (respectively) his unfaithful wife and his unfaithful partner in crime after a successful heist.

This is an early John Boorman movie, and it has a lot of arty photography and a nightmarish feel. Dialog is (seems to me) intentionally unrealistic. And the plot is ludicrous. But it's a lot of fun to watch.

It's also interesting to compare this with a later movie version of the same novel, Payback with Mel Gibson. Mel's character is also renamed for some reason as Porter. Porter kills a pile of people on his way to retrieving his just deserts. Walker, on the other hand, kills nobody (something a lot of reviewers miss, I've noticed); people keep winding up dead, though. Porter winds up with his money and the girl; Walker winds up with nobody, and it's not clear whether he gets the money or not.


Last Modified 2024-02-04 4:49 AM EDT

Star Trek: Nemesis

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)
[4.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

Another testimony to my inability to resist buying movie number ten when I've bought one through nine. You know those old cartoons that would turn a character's head into a lollipop (helpfully labelled "Sucker") when he was gulled? I'm sure that's how Paramount looks at folks like me.

But, like Star Trek V, it's not that bad. It's just that there's a lot of bad stuff in it. There's a pointless-action driving scene, batting barbarians on a desert planet; was this just to satisfy some moron who said "we need some action at this point in the movie"? Or to have something to put in the video game? Who knows?

Equally superfluous is a loooong one-on-one fight between Riker and a baddie who's transported himself onto the Enterprise. Instead of being drawn into the movie, I'm wondering whether Frakes demanded this be inserted as a condition of his contract.

Extra disk has a lot of, well, extra stuff. A number of deleted scenes made me wish they'd been left in and some other stuff cut out.

This looks like it was the last roundup for the Next-Generation crew. That's a darn shame.


Last Modified 2024-02-04 4:49 AM EDT