The Point Men
The Point Men
| 07 September 2001 (USA)
The Point Men Trailers

Some time after their botched operation to capture a known Palestinian terrorist, a team of Israeli agents starts to get killed off one by one. Their leader must get to the bottom of things before the killer(s) plan is complete.

Reviews
Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action
SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
zardoz-13 John Glen holds the distinction of helming more James Bond movies than any other director. He got his start on the Bonds as an editor and graduated with "For Your Eyes Only" as the director. Each of his 007 epics are classic, polished, and exciting. Glen displayed a knack for action filmmaking. Alas, when audiences turned away in droves for the second Timothy Dalton Bond adventure "License to Kill," the Bond producers cleaned house. Glen's career went into decline because nothing he made thereafter benefited from the force of a dynamic character like James Bond. The former Bond helmer hasn't lost his punch. Indeed, "The Point Men" has all the trappings of a Bond movie since it concerns one of the Mossad's ultra-hush, hush, assassination squads. Essentially, this briskly-paced 90-minute melodrama is a revenge thriller about a killer whittling down the squad one operative at a time. The PLO villain is as ruthless as he is methodical. At one point, he goes under a plastic surgeon's knife to disguise himself. After he has been given a new visage, the villain shoots not only the plastic surgeon but also his nurse. The action was lensed on actual locations in Luxembourg, France, Israel, and New York City, and this enhances the film's authenticity. Lenser Alec Mills' cinematography is solid stuff; he served as Glen's director of photography on "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery," "Iron Eagle: Aces: Iron Eagle 3, "The Living Daylights," and "License to Kill." Actress Maryam d'Abo has a small role as one of the squad. She played the romantic lead in Glen's "The Living Daylights."The opening scene bristles with action, explosions, and death. There is no shortage of melodrama in Ripley Highsmith's adaption of Steven Hartov's novel. Hartov wrote the two "Mercenary" straight-to-video movies. Mind you, Glen still knows how to orchestrate action scenes. "Highlander" star Christopher Lambert plays a sympathetic Mossad assassin who is convinced that his team iced the wrong terrorist. Miraculously, Tony Eckhardt (Lambert) survives an opening shoot-out in broad daylight but his partner (Hendrick Haese of "Contaminated Man") dies. No sooner has Rainer shot Amar Kamil than two unknown guys with small arms show up and blaze away at them. Maddy Hope (Kerry Fox of "Shallow Grave") pulls up in her car as the wounded Tony staggers away from the shooting. Maddy and he wind up participating in a careening car chase that ends disastrously with a fireball explosion wherein two men are barbecued. Tony winds up in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. He asserts that the man they killed was not the notorious Palestinian terrorist. Naturally, nobody believes Tony. Eventually, our hero leaves the hospital with his left arm in a sling and an automatic pistol tucked behind his back. Tony explains that the man they shot had a look of surprise in his eyes. Consequently, Tony and his 'foreign legion' of comrades are disbanded and reassigned. Nevertheless, the Middle-East villains aren't content to let old ills lay quietly. Tony is forced to take a desk job while one of his buddies goes back to college in New York City. Harry Webber (William Armstrong of "The Dark Knight") is the first member of the team to bite the dust. The killer stages the killing as if it were collateral damage during a convenience store robbery. The next man in their team, Peter Hauser (Nicolas de Pruyssenaere of "Black Book") dies next, in an explosion after his automobile is smashed and pushed off a mountain. Tony accuses Israel Intelligence of killing their former comrades because they still don't believe. Unfortunately, our hero cannot convince his superiors and some of his friends until it is too late. Eventually, Tony learns that the villain is motivated because his hit squad killed his two brothers and his wife. The villain plans to kill a PLO leader seeking peace, even though he is his half-brother.Glen directs with a sure hand. "The Point Men" is better than average with a villain who struggled against the irony in his predicament. Not bad, but not great.
andyspal56 Just finished watching this movie yesterday afternoon and was impressed enough with it to look for reviews on Google. This action movie definitely did not treat one side as all good, the other as all bad. It did, however deal with good and bad people on both sides. I also enjoyed the love story in this movie, not hokey as in so many movies, and could have realistically taken place; not something just thrown in. I would say that this was more of a thinking person's action film! When a certain's assassin's motives were revealed, even he was more understandable. Also, two foes came to somewhat soften their hatred towards one another. Watched the Blade series this weekend and thought it was very good; much better than the Matrix movies. What's one man's junk, is another man's treasure!
dromasca Hard to believe that the director of this film was once trusted with directing some of the films in the James Bond series. This is a worse than average action film, badly written, acted and directed. The subject is of an Israeli anti-terrorist squad mistakenly targeting the wrong man, and as a result its members becoming the target of a revenge series of murders. The way the Israeli ambiance and individuals are being described is completely wrong, and the complete idealization of the Israeli side does not help. The Middle East conflict is much more complex than a good vs. bad guys gun fight, but even for an action movie there are not too many new, unexpected or interesting things to be seen. A waste of time - 3 out of 10 on my personal scale.
dima-12 Rare are the authors that are able to create a vivid movie about the clashes of Israeli hitmen and Arab terrorists. 007 - veteran John Glen joined the legion of these greats with his latest feature THE POINT MEN. "Ripley Highsmith"`s script (based on Steve Hartov`s novel THE HEAT OF RAMADAN) served as an exceptional reason for the reunion of the reliable B - cast that doesn`t even warm the bench in the mainstream cinema these days. Action fans eventually got an opportunity to enjoy a pretty smart conception of heartwarming cliches from the , allegedly dead, MOSSAD - genre that was revived by an intelligent script, above average budget and Glen`s crafty direction of gunfights and car chases where bullets really hit the flesh and real cars get smashed up. No comment belongs out of this statement. There`s just home cinema for all those action buffs who craved for a good flip of an expensive Mercedes ever since McTiernan`s DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE.