Must See Movie...

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Using Alcatraz as a regular drop point (as indicated at start and end of movie) made no sense. The island is only 1.25 miles from San Francisco. The entire city would have seen the landing lights on the island turn on and the helicopter landing and taking off. People would be asking questions, so city/state police and Park Service police would be investigating.I suppose its nice for the viewer to imagine the open question about whether Walker gets the cash that is left behind. Or what happens to Chris' (Sister-in-Law & lover to Walker) character. Although I prefer to clear up loose ends.Overall, a lot of dead bodies left around for police to ask questions about.

After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker (Lee Marvin) single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him.The plot summary, as well as some of the characters in the film, seem to think $93,000 is a trifle. While I maybe would not go so far as to kill for it, $93,000 would be a pretty big deal to me. And the inflation rate tells me that $93,000 in 1967 would be $692,425 today -- certainly not inconsequential at all! A person could live comfortably on that for a while.Regardless, the film works well because of Lee Marvin. He is a strong antihero, sort of a Charles Bronson type before Bronson really took off. Choosing between this and the Mel Gibson remake, this film is the clear winner.

Point Blank is the movie Playback's predecessor. Porter for Walker! Gibson for Marvin! The premise of the story is exact. Marvin gets robbed, left for dead and wants his money back. The Porter/Walker characters are excellent, as harden robbers who are all so professional. The mechanics of the both stories are exciting to watch. Regrettably Point Blank has lulls. Angie Dickinson's character slows and or drags the story. The 60's flashbacks direction kills the tempo. Payback has better double cross side stories. The Chinese mob, and dirty cops side stories brought Payback to a higher level than Point Blank's side story. John Vernon aka Mal Reese character is good, but the Gregg Henry, Val Resnick, character put slime to a new art form. Point Blank had a statement ending and come across dull!

Lee Marvin was a quintessential man of action in 1960s cinema, always acting, never explaining. While he enjoyed a run of good films and an Oscar for one that wasn't, this remains his finest hour-and-a-half on film.Marvin is Walker, a man with no first name and a burning desire for getting back $93,000 stolen from him by his faithless wife and his false friend, Reese (John Vernon). As if by magic, a mystery man named Yost (Keenan Wynn) materializes to offer him a shot at the money...and revenge. Reese is now a part of something called the Organization, and Yost wants Walker's help bringing Reese down."You want Reese, and I want the Organization, you understand," Yost explains. "I'm going to help you and you're going to help me."Marvin's spare approach to acting was never on better display than it is here. His face is granite inexpressiveness, but he never stops until he gets what he is after. The result is a grimly satisfying piece of pure cinema expertly directed by John Boorman and drawing from Marvin's own real-life combat experience. Walker's walking wounded, but never shows pain or much of anything else except when it helps him get what he's after.The riddle of "Point Blank" rests in who Walker really is; the film is designed magnificently to keep you guessing. Normal human interaction is played at a curious minimum. Walker doesn't even ask questions when he confronts his wife, she simply talks in a monotone while he stares into space. Later, confronting a messenger, he just repeats whatever the fellow blurts out. For about ten minutes, from the time he meets Yost to the reunion with his wife, Walker doesn't speak at all. We just hear his footsteps echoing down an endless corridor.Is he a ghost? Is he having a vision, perhaps in a dying dream? It's hard to say, and people have had a field day guessing about it. He appears and disappears in elevators and parking garages seemingly at will. Everyone he meets says they thought he was dead. He doesn't even kill anyone directly, except perhaps one death which Walker operates with the help of a bedsheet, something we associate with ghosts. The bedsheet even blows up and covers Walker at the climactic moment.I'm still not sure what Walker is, but I enjoy watching Marvin make me guess. He doesn't even seem bothered when his sister-in-law Chris (Angie Dickinson) batters him with his hands for a couple of minutes, though her tagging him with a pool cue does get his attention for a little while. Mostly he just moves and watches, self-contained.He gets off a couple of funny lines, too, though you have to pay attention. At one point, Chris asks him why he brought her along for a meeting with a top Organization guy. "I thought you'd be safer with me than you would be by yourself," he answers. We have seen a lot of people by this point in the film who would have been much safer by themselves.Occasionally "Point Blank's" arid tone and zen vibe are bothersome elements, and there's a scene in a modern home (actually the same pad the Beatles hung out in when they visited Los Angeles) where Chris and Walker seem a bit too caught up in the movie's farther-out elements. But mostly this is a very involving and crafty movie, with a left- field ending that sticks.The film's unique style and rapid pace make for the kind of entertainment that is completely of its time and yet timeless, too. The same can be said for Lee Marvin, the hard-living man who left us this study of a man too hard for his own good.