Reviewed by Melissa Antoinette Garza
I must say sometimes it’s really good when I get overly-interested in actors/actresses and look through their filmography. Had I not been on a Danny Trejo kick, I would have missed the great film Point Break.
A bunch of convicts take over a mall and hold everyone hostage. The worst of the worse is Wallace (Danny Trejo). Now, I happen to think that Trejo is one of the sexiest actors out there, but nothing can make a man sexy when they portray a rapist. Here, Trejo does just that. There’s actually a very disturbing scene where he looks over Tracey (Nina Savelle) who is one of the women being held. He walks towards her and attempts to rape her in front of the rest of the hostages. Thankfully, he is stopped but it doesn’t make the scene any less unsettling. That said it is quite effective in making any viewer want to see Wallace get killed. Trejo was able to make Wallace such a despised character. He does this quite frequent, most notably in Con-Air. He plays despicable well but can also play one hell of a hero as he did most recently in Bad Ass and Machete.
Meanwhile, ex-cop Rudy (Mickey Rourke) wants to save his brother Joe (Kevin Gage) who is also a convict. He figures if he gets in the mall, he can help Joe obtain his freedom. To do so, Rudy ends up going after the majority of the convicts so that he can save the hostages that have not been killed by Wallace (he was gun-happy too) and find Joe.
As all of this is happening, one convict, Billy (Werner Schreyer) befriends Tracey. He tells her his story and how he ended up on death row. He’s a young kid who was homeless. He held up a convenient store with a gun that had no bullets in it. As he escaped, he ran into a cop car and killed two police officers. In this film, Schreyer had an uncanny resemblance to Antonio Sabato Jr. so much so that I had to look him up to be certain that the character was not portrayed by Sabato. Schreyer is successful in winning over the audience. He brought sensitivity, innocence and fear to the character which made it easy to root for his survival.
Another convict that was sympathetic was Sonny (Michael Wright). He ended up in prison when he found his wife cheating on him. In a moment of anger, he murdered the man who was sleeping with her. Michael Wright is such an amazing actor. Both in The Principal and my favorite sci-fi film/mini-series of all time V. His performance in that stands the test of time and is one of the best ever put forth. I will never forget how Wright as Elias reacted to his brother’s death. That was a perfect moment in movie history. As much as the new V tried it couldn’t compare to the old.
Rourke is fantastic in the lead. He really pulls off the ex-cop who desperately wants to save his brother.
As for Point Blank, it’s a great late-night watch. I watched it at 1:30 AM and am writing this review at 3:00 AM so I can surely attest to the value of it being great late-night viewing.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10 Definitely Worth the Watch
