(thanks, MyDeathlok!)
Forget that offbeat poster to the left, all the film’s stylish narrative tricks and fine ensemble cast doing some stellar work, folks. There’s one obvious moral to John Boorman’s Point Blank that seems to have escaped nearly everyone who dies in this film. That would be the following: If you owe Walker $93,000, stop talking so damn much, pay the man and stay breathing a bit longer.
Of course, this would make for a really short movie that’s probably not too entertaining, so the assorted bad men yak it up with excuses for not having his money while Walker (Lee Marvin), beats them with his wits, fists, a few well-placed bullets and assorted items in some of the sets. This is one of those “mature” late 60’s flicks where violence and refreshing vulgarity were emphasized as selling points and served the story being told. Although the storytelling here may require repeat viewing for those not used to narrative abstractions such as unusual editing, flashbacks and an ending that leaves a few questions lingering in the night air like the smell of gunpowder.
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OK, I don’t “hate” The Three Worlds of Gulliver at all, but as a kid, it did take me four attempts to sit through this classic family film without falling asleep. Sure, Ray Harryhausen’s “Superdynamation” effects and that lovely Bernard Herrmann soundtrack make this another perfect one-two punch for movie fans, but something about this flick has always rubbed me the wrong way.
Sure, it’s a quickly made post-Psycho cash-in with the added shock value of a character getting decapitated on screen (a rather nifty cheap effect if you’ve never seen this flick before), but thanks to a creepier tone and some nicely tense lensing by a young director named Francis Ford Coppola, Dementia 13 manages to be a pretty decent little horror film.