Boiling Point (1993)

Even a fine cast can't do much to breathe life into this thin gangster piece. Dennis Hopper stars as a pathetic small-timer trying to get ahead with one final score. The bad guys don't take him seriously, a cop (Wesley Snipes) is content to mow him down if necessary, and a woman (Lolita Davidovich) who cares about him just wants him to settle down. Director James B. Harris has the raw elements of a middling film noir in front of him, but he can't even link up the pieces enough to make Snipes and Hopper appear to be in the same movie. The DVD release has a full-screen presentation, Dolby sound, and closed captioning. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Simmer Me Timbers, Lad

This film picks up more of a cult interest, due to the Viggo Mortenson factor and a couple of other interesting things going on. The scriptwriter should have waited until "Heat" came out before offering this up as a tension builder.The way the scenes went back and forth from crook to cop was interesting in a satirical way.Pulling Valerie Perrine out of retirement was another surprse cameo.The noir attempt did not work on anyone who knew Newark from LA. Dennis Hopper was too wrapped up in the 40's, making you think he was going "Back to Future" on us here. The explosion expected, the one where Viggo outwits Hopper, does not happen, or vice versa. Instead they stop the action and shut down with a lame ending to a promising caper flick.The dangerous charm of Viggo burns into your memory. A Michael Mann would take this flat script to greater heights. January 8, 2007

Great Potential - Poor Dialogue

Boiling Point is an intriguing cop drama starring Wesley Snipes as the police officer, and Dennis Hopper with Viggo Mortensen as the pair of ex-cons that he's after. It's set up to be a film noir style story with an elegance - many references and scenes involving big band music, the tough-but-gentle prostitute, the cynical-but-caring girlfriend, even the slain partner who needs to be revenged.

There was a lot of potential here. The story starts with Wesley's character watching an undercover agent get shot. He then only has seven days to track down the killer before he's taken off the case. In the meantime, Dennis' character is fresh out of jail and only has 7 days to pay back a loan he owes. The movie deliberately sets up a lot of parallels like this. The scene where all three men are trying to 'win back' their exs is literally overlaid one on top of the other, showing how each man handles the situation. Dennis sweetly, gently talks his girlfriend into letting him stay. Viggo literally hits his girlfriend across the face before passionately kissing her. Wesley takes the arrogant approach with his ex-wife, telling her he's staying and that's that. The men's lives keep crossing and re-crossing without them realizing it, up until the final act.

I'm not quite sure, then, exactly why the movie seems so low in impact. These are all certainly fine actors. Dennis seemed to be playing out a cardboard stereotype, however, with far less acting power than pretty much any other role I'd seen him. His overzealous constant hand movements seem forced; his dialogue is strained. At least his character was given a back story that seems relatively believable, though. Poor Viggo has to put up with a character that was 2 dimensional from the start. All Viggo does is follow orders. He hits his girlfriend, he shoots men in the face and laughs about the blood. We never know why he's this callous, and the plot never gets us to care, either.

Wesley Snipes has really shown great talent in other films, but again it just feels like he's wasted here. He gets perhaps the most cliched lines of the group. He's worried about losing his son to a new 'father' when his ex-wife finds someone else to be with. He wants to run off with the prostitute. He wants to revenge his fallen cop friend no matter what it takes. And yet - it is amazing how many very obvious clues he misses.

I'd rent this one first to see how you like it. Maybe the big band scenes will appeal to you, or maybe watching so many good actors in unusual roles will give you different insights into their acting skills. It's not a movie I personally would own for repeated re-watchings, though. June 15, 2006

Boiling Point (1993)

Director: John B. Harris
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Lolita Davidovich, Viggo Mortensen, Seymour Cassel, Jonathan Banks, Christine Elise, Tony Lo Bianco, Dan Hedaya.
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated R for langauge and violence.

"Boiling Point is too pithy to be a successful thriller; too low profile to be a successful action caper. If the plot had thrown more twists, offered more insight on the characters psyche, or had a much more involving story, the film could have sufficed even as a decent thriller. Had there been explosives, chase scenes, and other good action ploys, this movie could've made a decent action film; however, it is not much of either category, thus suffering from mediocrity. Police detective, Jimmy Mercer (Wesley Snipes) and his partner, Brady (Dan Hedaya), are investigating the shooting death of an undercover U.S. Treasury agent who investigating a counterfeit ring. The two guys who he was dealing with, gunned him down and fled the scene, before Mercer and Brady could intervene and save their partner. Turns out the murderers are fast-talking Red Diamond (Dennis Hopper), so named because of his red hair, who owes fifty grand to another gangster within seven days and his partner, Ronnie (Viggo Mortensen), an eerie kind of guy who is never sure if Red is just handing him a line of garbage with all the schemes he involves him in. In order to make it through the next week alive, these two crooks need a get rich quick counterfeit scheme.

Meanwhile, Mercer and Brady are going from one informant to another, trying to get them to give up information about Red and Ronnie, a description, their location, anything. Sometimes they're successful and sometimes not. The movie goes on and on like as the two trail one person after another trying to get close on the trail of Red and Ronnie. It is wholly uninteresting, offering no real suspense and even less action to fill the time. The movie fails to deliver any real substance in between, which is sad when you consider the possibility of your characters, and especially, the potential of the actors. At points this is an enjoyable cop thriller but for the majority it is a misjudged affair that lacks either an emotionally involving depth or a fast paced tension that holds you. The problem is that it cannot decide which of these it wants to do and it is not good enough to manage to both in the way. Snipes does try hard but he can't get a human face that we buy into, specifically his "running away with hooker" thing is just laughably unconvincing. Hopper seems to be in another film and enjoys just wining and dining women but he only serves to slow the film down and distract from the main thread. Mortensen plays a standard role but does it pretty well, likewise Davidovich does well with what little she has. Support from familiar faces such as Cassel, Banks and Gleason all give the impression of a film deep in quality but sadly this is only an impression. Overall, this is a fairly poor film that tried to be better than the genre but failed to achieve its goals. In a plot that resembles the later "Heat", the threads don't work, with no emotional involvement in the characters and no thrills or tension to really speak of. The cast deserved better and so do the audience; there are several cop thrillers that try the same thing as Boiling Point, it would be to your advantage to watch one of the ones that actually does it well. January 1, 2006

Slow moving!!

This film is much like a 1940's film noir. This is not one of Wesley Snipes best. I found the dialogue to be unbelievable. The story is slow moving, which does the film no favors. It winds up to be a disappointing venture for Snipes & Dennis Hopper, who was wasted in his role. March 21, 2005

Dream (when you're feeling blue)... amazing music

I quite like this unpretentious film noir. It's not the best script in the world, and Wesley Snipes plays a wooden stereotype, but the acting of the two bad guys carries the film. Dennis Hopper has never given a better performance and Viggo Mortensen's handsome, easygoing killer is quite disturbing. The charm of this film revolves around these two conmen. Their self-deceptive patter, Hopper's frequent refrain of "...and that's no lie!", Mortensen's extreme violence forgotten within seconds, the down-at-heel diners, the live band at the Palace dance hall, Hopper's dancing with a wryly amused hooker, the pathos of his long suffering girlfriend left standing alone outside in her blue dress as he's driven away by Snipes at the end... all somehow add up to more than the individual parts.

I'm here because like an earlier reviewer I was blown away by the Big Band music and have been trying to find out who performed it. There is no soundtrack available and the band and singers don't seem to be credited anywhere. If anyone can cast any light I'd be most grateful. January 5, 2005

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