I know I said I’d be tackling a review for Crawl last week in my Spider-Man: Far from Home review, but honestly… I kind of forgot that movie even came out, so I didn’t see it over the weekend like I promised.
It isn’t like I thought the film looked bad or anything, in fact it looked like a fun campy killer croc movie and I’m always down for something campy.
It just somehow slipped my mind that it was released this weekend. I have been weening myself off cable tv for a while now. I’m finally at a point where I don’t even turn my cable box on anymore. The minor issue about that however, besides the fact I’m paying for something I no longer use, is I now no longer see tv ads. Not something that will be missed, that’s for sure. But I now fail to get those tv promos for movie trailers that you’re constantly bombarded with.
The only time I run into ads is now on Youtube, which I quickly skip past.
So sometimes I’m not really sure when a series or movie comes out and/or premieres until it has already come out or premiered.
One thing I do have access to however is Netflix and like every week, they released a new movie called Point Blank, an action thriller starring Avengers alumni Anthony Mackie and Frank Grillo.
The film is also directed by Joe Lynch, someone I’ve had my eye on going way back, maybe in his Troma days. He was also a writer I believe for the long dead defunct network G4tv, the network that launched Olivia Munn’s career.
If I had a film of his worth recommending, I’d say Everly is worth seeking out if you are in the mood for some ultraviolence.
Of course I didn’t know any of this while watching the film, all I was aware of at the time was that this was yet another Netflix action film starring Frank Grillo. The last being Wheelman, a film that really wasn’t half bad.
Can he keep up that level of mediocracy? Let’s find out! Here is Point Blank.
Frank Grillo plays Abe, a no nonsense, shoot you in the face first, ask questions later kind of guy. Along with his brother Mateo, they are guns for hire, taking a job to steal a thumb drive, but when Abe arrives, he finds the owner of the house dead and a pair of masked gunmen waiting for him.
As he flees the crime scene, trying to meet back up with his brother, Abe is severely injured when he is hit by a passing car.
Desperate, Abe’s brother Mateo pays Abe’s nurse a visit.
Abe’s nurse is Paul, played by Anthony Mackie. He has a very pregnant wife back home named Taryn who is due any time now. Paul is attacked at home, getting knocked unconscious, waking to find that his pregnant wife has been kidnapped.
If he ever wishes to see her or their unborn child alive again, he must break Abe out of the hospital where he is heavily guarded by the police.
The man that was found dead was the DA, I believe. I could be wrong. Anyway, Abe is the lead suspect in his death. Luckily for him, he’s in a medically induced coma and can’t be interrogated.
Paul renders the guard unconscious, freeing Abe with a shot of adrenaline to get him on his feet.
The lead detectives on the case are Masterson and Lieutenant Lewis, who is played by Marcia Gay Harden. She just screams dirty cop from the start. So when it is revealed that she was behind the murder, it isn’t that shocking. I don’t think I’m giving you too much of a spoiler this early on, since as much as I did enjoy this film, it isn’t the most original.
Everything is well telegraphed. You know before the characters do what’s on the drive. You know who the bad guys really are, you know that Mateo, the fuck up is going to get himself killed, you know everything that is going to happen. But it isn’t one of those films that rely on those things for it to be enjoyable.
Abe and Mateo plan to meet up at a public place, a busy bus station. But they caught a tail, a pair of dirty cops are after them, causing Mateo and Abe’s wife Taryn to flee.
Abe and Paul make a getaway but are tracked down by the dirty cops, now having to flee by foot. To find new wheels and to recharge their phone, they stop at a pawnshop Abe knows about, run by Cheetah.
Paul secretly recharges the phone, dialing the police for help.
Cheetah gives Abe the keys to a car out back but before they can say their goodbyes, Lieutenant Lewis and her band of dirty cops show up.
She kills Cheetah and Masterson, pinning it on Abe.
What she doesn’t know however is that Cheetah keeps a hidden camera in a marijuana piñata that has recorded the whole dirty setup.
She wants the drive Abe stole, a drive that links her to dirty mob money.
Paul steps up, takes out the dirty cop assigned to execute them.
Abe and Paul go on the run again, to see the gangster Abe owes money to, Big D.
Meanwhile, Mateo and Taryn are laying low at the brothers’ warehouse hideout. Taryn goes into labor but before Mateo can take her to the hospital, the dirty cop that’s been hounding them arrives and mortally wounds Mateo.
Taryn is once again taken hostage.
Abe and Paul go to Big D to try and make a deal. He hands over the thumb drive with all the mob bank accounts, officially paying back everything Abe owes him.
With Big D’s help, Abe and Paul are able to stage an attack on the precinct they’re keeping Taryn hostage.
By ramming a burning car into a staked out police car, Abe and Paul are able to slip into the building, dressed as a paramedic and an injured police officer.
While in side, the two split up, Abe goes looking for Lieutenant Lewis, while Paul rushes to Taryn who is going into labor but is also having to fight off the dirty cop who murdered Mateo.
Abe is able to grab the hidden incriminating footage that shows Lieutenant Lewis murdering her partner in the pawn shop. He hands the tape over to a news outlet, having them show it live on tv.
Paul on the other hand, wrestles with the dirty cop dead set on killing him. He takes a syringe to the neck, killing him. But they aren’t out of danger yet, as Taryn is having her baby now.
Abe slips away while Paul delivers his baby and Lieutenant Lewis is forced to die by cop.
A year later and Abe checks up on them via text.
It doesn’t exactly set up for a sequel, but I could see more getting made. It was a fun buddy cop type of film, having two opposites having to work together to reach a shared goal I don’t think ever gets old. It’s kind of one of those tried and true movie formulas that’s hard to fuck up. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just look at Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, a film Stallone took only because he falsely heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted the role.
Or Theodore Rex, the Whoopi Goldberg dinosaur cop movie. Yeah, that exists.
I give Point Blank a RENT IT. If you’re looking for a fun action film, give this one a shot.
Next week, I don’t really have anything planned as I’m mostly waiting for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to come out. I have some big plans for that review, which could possibly be my longest review ever. This is Quentin Tarantino after all, he deserves my all.
See you next week! Or not.
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