Conference bookie::movies

143.0. "Boiling Point" by 8269::BARRIANO (choke me in the shallow water...) Sat Apr 17 1993 21:06

This movie stars Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Lolita Davidovich and Dan Hedaya?
Dennis Hoppers exwife is played by a familiar actress, but I forget her name
(should have wrote this last night while it was still fresh?). This is the 
sorriest, most poorly acted, poorly directed film I have seen all year. The plot
is ridiculous, the dialogue is hilarious, only trouble is, they're trying to be
serious. :-) I really enjoyed Snipes in Passenger 57 and was expecting, from
the trailers to see a similar movie. Boy was I WRONG!
Spoiler Warning
 Snipes plays a Treasury agent, the movie opens with Snipes and Hedaya (his
 partner) listening in on a counterfeit money deal being conducted in a motel 
room. Snipes friend (an undercover agent) is murdered by one of Dennis Hopper's
henchmen. Hopper is a conman recently released from a five year prison term.
He has red hair and wears a diamond pinky ring, his name Red Diamond, UGH!
Snipes runs home to his exwife's house twice during the movie, goes through a
I need to talk to someone baby, scene that reminded me of a bad imitation of
William Shatner. His ex-wife has a new husband (boyfriend) so Snipes running
back home for a shoulder to cry on makes no sense. Hopper goes back to his
ex-wife, she tells him he's an unreliable bum and take a hike, of course they 
wind up in bed and after wards she tells him. It was great fun but I never want 
to see you again?  Hopper's henchmen (I don't remember the actor) also recently
released from prison, goes back to his girlfriend. She says take a hike, he 
belts her in the mouth, she says oh baby, baby and they head for the bedroom ?
Hopper owes money to a mob boss (Tony LoBianco) on the way up to the mobster's
penthouse he meets Lolita Davidovich, a call girl on her way to service LoBianco
Dennis and Lolita get together for dancing and sex. Snipes and Davidovich are
also an item. At the end of the movie, Snipes and Davidovich go off to Newwark
New Jersey, how does that happen?   DON'T ASK!  Snipes and Hopper keep crossing
paths: when Lolita and Hopper finish dancing we see Snipes looking out the 
window of a bar/restaurant at Lolita saying goodnight to Hopper. Davidovich then
crosses the street to meet Snipes. There is another scene where Snipes and 
Hoppe are at ajoining urinals at a hotel restroom, and don't know who the other
one is?  A real funny scene (which illustrates the stupidity of this film),
Snipes and Hedaya are in a car, watching a suspect. Snipes leaves to see his
exwife and Hedaya stays to watch the suspect. Snipes winds up, after his
exwifes boyfriend comes to the door with Snipes son in his arm, at a club 
talking to Lolita or was it Hopper?  So who is at the bar watching? Hedaya
who is supposed to be back watching the suspect! Can you say sloppy editing and
continuity, I knew that you could. :-)
This movie is a total waste, I can't imagine any of the actors involved,
listing it on their resume's in the future.
0 Stars out of 5

Regards
Barry 
 

    Well, I didn't think it was quite as messy at .0 does, but all in all,
    it was a rather poor movie.  With a name like Boiling Point (the poster
    has a glowering Wesley Snipes looking mean and about to shoot someone),
    you sort of expect a good old Lethal Weapon/Die Hard/action movie shoot
    'em up, but what you get is pretty tepid.  
    
    I think the movie wandered, from here to there, planning to get around
    to having something happen oh, maybe next scene.  A lot of the scenes
    were just LONG (there's this lovely five minutes--it seemed--spent on
    two hoods looking at each other and basically saying, "You gonna show
    me the money?"  "No, are you gonna show me the money?"  "Only after you
    show me the money."  "No, after YOU show me the money."  and so on.  I
    felt like grabbing the briefcase(s) from both of them, whacking their
    heads together and showing BOTH of them the money at the same time,
    just to get the damned scene over with.)
    
    Chock full o' stereotypes, too.  Hooker with the heart of gold, the
    corny con man who gestures a lot and says "Trust me. Would I lie to
    you?", the golden retriever of a sidekick who basically does what
    anyone with an IQ tells him to, the crooked lawyer, the oily rich
    criminal, the gun moll wife/girfriend who just wants a normal life, the 
    ex-wife who just couldn't take being the wife of a cop anymore, the
    small child, who, so far as I could tell, might as well have been
    stuffed, he didn't open his eyes or move during the whole film, 
    lots of ex-cons who wear bad clothing, loud ties, etc, etc, and so on.
    
    Really, just not a very good movie.
    
    *.75 out of ****  (.75 just to hear Jonathan Bank's voice again)
    
    
    kim  

    Re .1: I love the "golden retriever of a sidekick" comment! [I'm fond
    of sidekicks, too, but sometimes they do get a bit doggish.]
    
    Jonathan Banks is in this one? In his usual role as a first-assistant
    heavy, or something with more zing? I've missed him since "Wiseguy"
    went off the air...
    
    -b

    
    
    No, he's a heavy in his own right in this one, though the role is not
    that big.  He gives orders instead of taking them.
    
    DFW

    
    Valerie Perrine plays Dennis Hopper's ex-wife.
    
    				Jim

The best thing about this movie was that it was only 93 minutes long
on video, including the lead-in ads for other films and the credits,
so I didn't lose too much of my life by watching it.
I picked it up as a second free-fer (my video shop offers two-for-one).

The tension that would grow from the coincidences of Hopper and Snipes
in the same place at the same time never comes to anything.

VERY disappointing.

- tom]