Cast: Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Lolita Davidovich, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya
Director: James B. Harris
Producers: Marc Frydman and Leonardo De La Fuente
Screenplay: James B. Harris based on the novel Money Men by Gerald Petievich
Cinematography: King Baggot
Music: Cory Lerios and John D'Andrea
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
Jimmy (Wesley Snipes) is a Federal Agent who doesn't always play by the book. When a bust goes bad and one of his colleagues is killed, the department decides to ship him off to Newark, New Jersey. He has seven days to avenge the dead officer and find the men responsible for his death. The killer, Ronnie (Viggo Mortensen), is actually the flunkey of a two-bit con artist named Red (Dennis Hopper). In order to enlist Ronnie's aid, Red has convinced the younger man that he's a big-time crook with powerful connections. Together, the two start on a rarely-successful crime spree with Jimmy in hot pursuit.
Boiling Point is an average police thriller (although, surprisingly, there are no high-speed car chases) with little to offer that's new or original. It tries to be more intelligent than most genre movies, but what passes for a "higher quality" script is just less exciting. The few clever plot twists (none of which are substantial) don't compensate for the general lack of energy evident throughout. I doubt that action fans will enjoy this film, and those looking for drama will be put off by the stock characters and predictable situations.
Unlike many films that focus on con artists and their scams, Boiling Point only presents a few run-of-the mill capers. We keep expecting Red to come up with something brilliant, but the "card up his sleeve" is one that we learn about early -- he's leading Ronnie on while training him to be his assassin. For his part, Red detests killing. He doesn't even like carrying a gun.
Neither Snipes nor Hopper does much with their routine roles. For both of these well-known actors, this is obviously a "paycheck" movie. Lolita Davidovich (Blaze) is equally unimpressive in a superfluous "girlfriend" part. The only one to do anything with their character is Viggo Mortensen, and his performance is far from Oscar caliber.
Boiling Point is based on the novel Money Men, which is in turn based on a true story. While this naturally limits the scope of the plot, the manner in which the story has been converted to the screen lacks style. It appears that an attempt was made to correct matters in the editing room (even a casual look reveals that the movie has undergone heavy cutting-and-pasting), but there's only so much that can be accomplished in post-production.
Simply put, Boiling Point functions as an apt definition of cinematic mediocrity, with little to laud or despise. It's the kind of motion picture you can yawn your way through without getting overly worked up about the money you lost paying the price of admission.
© 1993 James Berardinelli