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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 48215
Released: September 8, 2009 |
| Our Price: $7.06 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/08/2009
Description of Point of No Return (Keepcase):
Point of No Return is one of those Hollywood remakes of a European hit in which one can visualize a committee of studio executives sitting around and saying, "Okay, we know what made the original film unique and different and fun. How can we make that same movie and do exactly the opposite?" For-hire director John Badham (Saturday Night Fever) took La Femme Nikita, Luc Besson's undeniably sexy, original, and kitschy French film about a female assassin, and translated it into a calculating, mechanistic American thriller with no distinctive style. Bridget Fonda gamely plays the willowy street punk who becomes a high-society killer, but once that provocative irony is in place, the movie is pretty much a series of by-the-numbers action set pieces. Until, that is, Dermot Mulroney shows up as a love interest; but even that twist can't save this film. You're much better off with the original, subtitles and all. --Tom Keogh
Point of No Return (Keepcase) Reviews:
More than a mindless action flick 
2009-12-08 - "Point of No Return" is a 1993 American remake of the 1990 French film "La Femme Nikita," which spun a tv series that ran from 1997-2001. There's also a Hong Kong version made in 1991 called "Black Cat." My only familiarity with this franchise is that I vaguely remember seeing one of the tv episodes with Peta Wilson many moons ago. Hence, this review will be based solely on the merits of "Point of No Return" itself (which isn't necessarily a bad thing since fans of original films tend to be excessively critical of remakes).
THE STORY: Maggie (Bridget Fonda) is a drug-addicted loser who gets the death penalty for being a cop-killer. There's a 'burial' but she mysteriously wakes up in a secret governmental institution and is offerred the opportunity to live; the catch is that she must now perform the government's dirty work as an assassin. She spends numerous months learning the skills and social graces necessary. After training she takes the code name Nina and re-enters society living in Venice Beach, CA. There she discovers normalcy (compared to her past life) and love. The consequence of becoming whole and civilized is that Nina develops a conscience and comes to resent being a nasty tool of the government. Unfortunately her controller (Gabriel Byrne) informs her that there is no 'out' and dissenters automatically get a bullet in the brain.
"Point of No Return" is one of those films that I didn't expect much from and wasn't overly impressed with the first half hour, but when Nina passes her final 'test' and re-enters society the film caught my interest and wholly captivated until the end.
The movie plays like a mish-mash of "The Mechanic" (1972), where Charles Bronson plays an assassin, and secret agent flicks like James Bond, but it lacks the goofiness and silly gadgets of many Bond films and the characters have more depth. For instance, the viewer comes to care about Nina and her plight; this is basically a story of redemption and we want her redemption to be successful but how can it be when she's conscripted to kill people? Did I say 'conscripted'? Enslavement is more like it since Nina HAS to obey orders or die; and the secret agency can get away with it because to all intents and purposes she doesn't even exist.
Late in the story Harvey Keitel has a small and entertaining role as 'The Cleaner'. He effectively portrays an emotionless, lifeless person who's completely hardened his heart in order to perform his ultra-violent work.
Here's an interesting point brought up by reviewer Richard Ballard: The Armed Forces labor to instill esprit de corps and comradeship amongst their members, e.g. 'We are strongest as a team and nobody gets left behind.' By contrast the three Nikita films and the tv series share a common weakness: How can a threatening organization expect quality performance and loyalty from its agents? Continuous internal threats would naturally weaken agents' morale. When crisis occurs threatened agents cannot run to the threatening organization. Even though agents are under the threat of death and, in a sense, have nowhere to run, the threatening nature of the agency itself naturally creates disloyal dissenters who will eventually seek escape, unless of course they're total mindless automatons like 'The Cleaner'.
A few criticisms: Some scenes are formulaic and therefore predictable, like the end of the Hotel scene and the hoodlum sequence in New Orleans, plus Dermot Mulroney isn't always convincing as Nina's boyfriend, also some of the action is too over-the-top (e.g. the restaurant scene); but I consider these minor flaws in light of the film's overall compelling force.
The picture runs 109 minutes and was shot on location in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Culver City, Venice Beach and New Orleans.
FINAL SAY: I was expecting another dumb action flick like "Speed" but instead got something that drew me in and really wowed me. "Point of No Return" is an engrossing action film with depth.
GRADE: A-
Another Blu Ray Hall-of-Shamer... 
2009-12-01 - *** BLU RAY 2009 REVIEW ***
If ever a disc was a textbook example of how NOT to present BLU RAY, then "Point Of No Return" (called "The Assassin" in Europe) is it.
The print is awful almost the whole way through. There's blocking everywhere, blurriness and clearly no attempt to restore the film. Depressingly this release on BLU RAY only accentuates how badly filmed it was in the first place - in short its worse on this format than it was on DVD. It's not as bad as "The French Connection" or "2010" on BLU RAY (see reviews), but it's close. There are no extras either. Personally, I've always liked the movie, but I wanted a better copy of it - and this is NOT it.
This shoddy release only reconfirms the worst fears of movie fans - film companies are throwing any amount of crap at the BLU RAY wall at the moment to bolster up the sales numbers - and it's being done without any care being given to the release.
Even if you're a lover of the movie, hire it first before you buy - 20 minutes in and you'll be too disappointed to reach for the credit card...
"The Assassin/Point of No Return" on BLU RAY is a very real reason as to why Amazon reviews exist.
One to avoid I'm afraid.
A Must See!
2009-11-03 - If you haven't seen the movie yet, make it a point to! GREAT movie!
No Point To It At All 
2009-11-03 - I just saw this movie (again) two days ago, I had seen it many years back when it first came out. Unfortunately at the time I had not seen La Femme Nikita and my sister recommended the original. I was stunned! Up until this point I had no idea that Hollywood actually copied material in this manner (honestly I didn't). As I watched the original I became more and more disgusted with this American version.
I really wonder though if I should blame the American people or Hollywood for this travesty. I am not put off by sub titles and if you look at "The Passion of the Chirst" people clearly will pay money to see a movie with not a single English word spoken. So is Hollywood really "forced" to remake great movies in order for us to see them, or is Hollywood underestimating us by feeding us this remade junk? As some have pointed out, this movie is scene for scene a remake of the original - and to me it is a horrible remake.
You know, I can actually bring up another example. There is an English show called "Coupling" which they tried to duplicate here. I saw an original episode and then a remade episode. The American remade episode - even though it was identical scene for scene just wasn't funny. The same is true of this movie - the drama and everything else that went with it, just wasn't there.
The scenes are truly not idential and even those little differences were better in the original. Mind you, I saw the original AFTER I saw this junk of a movie. You would think that I would be swayed by this movie because I saw it first - nope. The fact is that the world out there makes some great movies, but we can't enjoy them the way they were meant to be. We have to be dumbed down and spoon feed with an American actor, english words or we are just too far out of our comfort zones to care. I think in the end that is not true because if it was then there wouldn't be so many people here pointing to the original and proclaiming how much the original one is to this one.
bridget in blue ray...... YES!!!!
2009-10-30 - Hadthis movie on VHS and 10 ytimes better on Blue Ray Bridgette Fonda in HD on 55" LED. WOW
