Boiling Point ** (1993, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Viggo Mortensen, Valerie Perrine, Lolita  Davidovich, Seymour Cassel, Dan Hedaya)– Classic Movie Review 13,241

Writer/ director James B Harris’s 1993 American action film Boiling Point boasts an outstanding Nineties star cast of Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Viggo Mortensen, Valerie Perrine, Lolita Davidovich, Tony Lo Bianco, Seymour Cassel, and Dan Hedaya. It is based on the novel Money Men by former US Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich.

So a lot was expected of Boiling Point, but it is a routine B-movie-style thriller with Wesley Snipes and Dan Hedaya as US Treasury federal agents on the trail of a couple of crooks (Dennis Hopper, Viggo Mortensen) who kill their undercover buddy for small-time money, then kill again as they go for bigger bucks.

This intriguing film by long-time Kubrick associate Harris (he produced The Killing) is not bad. The problem is just that it never reaches anything like boiling point. Snipes makes very little of a dully written hero role as the usual lawman wanting reconciliation with his wife and kids.

But Hopper makes a decent meal of his ageing recidivist act, trying to get together with old flame Valerie Perrine and spending the night with tart with a heart Lolita  Davidovich. He even makes this unpleasant character with his penchant for Forties dance music quite touching, so that you actually feel for him when the chips are down and he says, ‘What’s the use, you can’t fucking win!’

Dennis Hopper aside, the particularly intriguing cast is largely wasted on what just isn’t a rattling good B-movie yarn, though the film would be far poorer without them.

And nor is it rivetingly handled. It is tepid. The pauses for long dialogue scenes help to build character and depth, but dissipate the tension and hold up the action.

Also in the cast are Jonathan Banks, Christine Elise, James Tolkan, Paul Gleason, Tobin Bell and Bobby Hosea.

It was released on 16 April 1993 in the US.

It was James B Harris’s fifth and last film.

Harris said that Warner Bros cut ten minutes to try to make the film more commercial and changed the title from Money Men to Boiling Point to sell it as an action picture. Hopper’s scenes were shortened to strengthen Snipes’s role and other cuts were made to quicken pacing.

Boiling Point is directed by James B Harris, runs 92 minutes, is made by Hexagon Films and Le Studio Canal+, is released by Warner Bros (US) and Guild Film Distribution (UK), is written by James B Harris, is shot by King Baggot, is produced by Marc Frydman and Leonardo de la Fuente, and is scored by Dominique Forma.

James B Harris (born August 3, 1928)

James B Harris (born August 3, 1928) worked with Stanley Kubrick as producer on The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and Lolita (1962). Harris’s directorial debut was The Bedford Incident (1965). He also directed James Woods in Fast-Walking and Cop (1988), and directed the 1993 thriller Boiling Point.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,241

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