POINT BLANK...The one with Mickey Rourke.

POINT BLANK is about a bunch of convicts who are freed by some dude with a rocket launcher while being transported across the country.  Afterward they take over a nearby mall for some reason.  I think the main bad guy, Howard,  who planned the escape saw DIE HARD too many times and wanted to live out the remainder of his life pretending to be a gay Hans Gruber.  Yes, Howard is gay.  And yeah, I know that the mall is just a front for Howard's criminal empire so it would make sense to at least go there get a bunch of money.  But then they just stand around waiting for a chopper.  I don't think it was really necessary for them to kill a bunch of people and take over the joint.  If they needed to  escape then why didn't they escape WHEN THEY ESCAPED?!!!

Mickey Rourke plays Rudy Ray an ex-special forces, ex-Texas Ranger turn farmer (I think) who has a brother who was an inmate that helped orchestrate the escape.  Rourke goes in by himself to either bring his brother out alive or put him down himself.  I thought that would make for some pretty interesting drama but it doesn't pay off all too well.  The problem is that this movie kind of drags and has a tendency to veer off the more interesting brothers on opposite sides of the law story and start developing the secondary characters who are a couple of convicts that like to tell their life stories so we can feel sorry for them.  When the film starts to get going the movie stops so these other characters can blah-blah-blah the movie to death. 

Even though this is Rourke's only lead role in an action movie I think POINT BLANK earns him the right to be in THE EXPENDABLES.  Mickey Rourke is a good badass for the most part with his bulked out muscles and rough looking face.  He is bigger than Rambo.  Maybe too big.  The problem is that his body looks as if it is packed with delicious meats.  Watch out there is a giant ham running around in a combat vest shooting bad guys in the face and awkwardly dodging bullets!  Rourke is intimidating as hell but sometimes during the shootouts and kung-fu take downs he seems uncomfortable in the role.  Bruce Willis he is not.  But Rourke has his own unique screen presence.  He doesn't need to say a lot to get the point across that he can kick butt.  And he is really good at shooting bad guys in the face especially when they are wearing ski masks.

The movie has some good moments.  Danny Trejo almost steals the show as being one of the most badass crazy villains ever.  The dude likes to kill and he loves cocaine.  Maybe I should try cocaine too.  He has two battles with Rourke in this and during one of them Trejo catches a bullet with his mouth!....Sort of.  That isn't what kills him though just to show you how badass Trejo is in this.  Rourke's brother Joe Ray is somewhat of a compelling character in this.  He is not really a bad guy but somebody who is a reluctant pawn who has no choice but to side with Howard because he has been sentenced to death by the state and this is his last chance for a second life.  It is interesting to see the two brothers avoid killing each other in the midst of all the chaos that is going on.  If the movie would have focused more on these two the movie would have been great.

POINT BLANK is one of those movies that copies from other films big time.  There is some John Woo style action moments lifted straight out of HARD BOILED.  There is a Gatling gun that magically appears on the roof of the mall so this one guy can pretend he is the terminator from T2.  He shoots a bunch of cop cars before getting made not alive anymore by a hail of gun fire.  There is a moment when Joe Ray is wounded and just about to reach the end of this tunnel to freedom when he is shot in the back by Howard.  The whole moment is filmed like Leon's death at the end of THE PROFESSIONAL.  And obviously you can see the CON AIR and DIE HARD influence big time.  The only thing missing is that Rudy Ray didn't have a cool catch phrase like John McClane did.  Instead of saying "Yippie-Ki-Yay, Mother F*ckers", Rudy should be saying "Zippidy-Doo-Da, Dingalings".  Yeah, that would be awesome.

Still despite the many weird scene transitions, odd music choices, Dutch angles galore and plot holes the size of my ego I got to say that I enjoyed this film.  It may not be as well put together as most action films but it is as badass as it is bad.  When people get shot they bleed all over the place.  This isn't PG-13 action.  Danny Trejo is a show stealer and the body count is high.  I had a good time watching this one even though no one else in the room did.  Whoops.  POINT BLANK is a stupid movie but I'm a stupid guy so I liked it.  THE END.

Jason