The Kill Point (Lionsgate DVD/2007 TV Mini-Series)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C-
It is
hard to do a gritty heist project for TV and have it deliver with the impact of
the better feature film equivalent, but the cable TV Mini-series The Kill Point (2007) does an
unintentionally funny job of trying, down to its silly “we wish we were
Tarantino” cover. John Leguizamo is the
head of a crack team of criminals robbing a bank in the middle of a busy
downtown business district. However,
complications ensue and the crooks take hostages.
A
negotiator (Donnie Wahlberg, who also deserves better after Diamond Men) is called in and the
formula kicks in and follows. The only
thing the series can do is pump up the sound, but that cannot begin to hide the
many problems with the teleplay, which always feels like a third, fourth or
fifth generation version of this kind of tale done so much better in the
1970s. Good as campy entertainment, The Kill Point has little point.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot in digital High Definition
video and has the usual restrictive color (especially in the reds) one would
expect, but it is a shoot on the clean side and makes amusing use of its
Pittsburgh locations. The Dolby Digital
5.1 mix is odd as the music and even sound effects are fine, but the dialogue
can be an issue, sounding as if it were recorded on older digital audio. Character interviews are the only extra and
it is thin too.
- Nicholas Sheffo
