Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

merklekranz "Point of Origin" may or may not take liberties with the facts. It is supposedly based on a true story, however it definitely takes liberties with the audience. What is shown to be real, is then flip flopped in the audiences mind to justify an ending that was not quite satisfying. Ray Liotta gives a good performance as do the supporting cast, and as entertainment the film succeeds. It does leave some questions that nag at the viewer, which drags the total movie down a notch. The rapid fire effects are another negative as they become redundant after awhile. My conclusion is that this could have been a better movie if it played on a more level field with the audience, and the fire effects were toned down. Marginally recommended. - MERK

Mark Heiliger At first glance it's just a movie of the week. It's true that it was one of HBO's original movies, but to call it a movie of the week would be to limit it to a group of movies with hackneyed plots, weak actors, and clueless directors. Point of Origin is so much more than those terrible excuses for entertainment.The story concerns an arson investigator (Ray Liotta) and his protege (John Leguizamo) who are investigating a particularly nasty string of arson fires. Those of you who remember the news of the incident this film is based on might see the story coming, but most people will not simply because it is too outlandish to be true. But it IS.What grabbed me most in this movie were the two lead performances by Leguizamo and Liotta as well as a directorial vision that is on the verge of brilliance. Every creative decision made in this movie had a very specific goal. Pay close attention to the palette of colors used. Much of the movie is made up completely of black, white, and orange. Special effects are used to great effect in putting the audience and the characters "inside" the fires they are investigating. As far as TV movies go, this one was truly refreshing.

jackrabbitslims-1 like those dumb kids in high school who try to make friends with everyone and always carry gum and smell funny, this movie tries to hard to attract everyone's interest. It's a weak screenplay with some pretty good cinematography, but it loses it's audience's interest early on.

stn71186 Point of Origin is about a man who starts fires. Ray Liotta is a arcinost and we see some wierd but great visuals of him imagining how the fires start. However, he the other arcinosts believe he started the fires. John Leguizamo plays his partner who tries to prove John (Liotta) did not start the fires. Thats about the whole story. Nothing too exciting. The characters are undeveloped. Ray Liotta's character, we only get a glimpse of his home life and it is so briefly shown that you wonder why they bothered with even those scenes. The music score was aweful, the worst I have ever heard. It made me cringe at times hearing such aweful sounds. THe cinematography is so overdone that at times it is unwatchable. Also, what was up with Illeana Douglas? She has a fairly small part but she is in it enough where we should know who she is but we never know. OK plot, bad characters, BAD cimematography, and BAD BAD BAD score but for some reason it is still watchable but very forgettable. It is suprising to see a movie like this join the list of HBO movies. For sure, this will be on the bottom of the HBO list of movies.