Point Blank

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: August 31, 1967

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

86	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Nick Schager

Though Point Blank is rife with existential malaise, it is also one of the most ferociously sexy crime movies ever made. Read full review

100

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

The ultimate arty 60s thriller, and we mean that as a compliment. Read full review

100

EmpireClark Collis

Showing that "the little man" CAN make a difference. Marvin is exceptional. Read full review

100

Michael Wilmington

Point Blank catches the feel of the late '60s and the sunshot, edgy atmosphere of Los Angeles then (the go-go clubs, the used-car lots, the penthouses and the storm drain tunnels) like few movies since. [07 Feb 1997, p.K]

Ty Burr

The lead character has been aptly renamed Walker, and, as played by Marvin in what may be the actor’s most emblematic performance, he strides through Los Angeles like a gangland golem: watchful, unstoppable, frighteningly silent. Read full review

Joe Holleman

Director John Boorman (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) stretched the limits of 1960s cinematic storytelling with his nonlinear plot construction, experimental camera angles and psychedelic flashbacks. While some of it seems a bit trite by today's standards, it was rather innovative at the time. [05 Jul 2005, p.D1]

Mike Clark

Among the great cult movies of the '60s, this was director John Boorman's second feature and first of note after his debut with the Dave Clark Five's Having a Wild Weekend. [08 Jul 2005]

Keith Phipps

Point Blank smartly joins film-noir elements with techniques from the then-cresting British, French, and Italian new waves. Read full review

The GuardianPeter Bradshaw

An intriguing, disorientating 60s artefact. Read full review

The Observer (UK)Philip French

A landmark in the history of the crime movie, Point Blank's expressive feeling for landscape and architecture anticipates Michael Mann's Heat. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

At times, it feels a touch self-conscious – a box of directorial tricks employed to compensate for an occasional lack of real substance elsewhere. Read full review

Adam Lowes

Pre-dating the release of Dennis Hopper’s 1969 American counter-culture classic Easy Rider by two years, Boorman’s Point Blank is also a very trippy, psychedelic affair. Marvin fending off two assailants behind the colourful, swirling backdrop of an avant-garde jazz gig is an evocative snapshot of that period, and just one of the many fetchingly abstract moments this strange and beguiling picture has to offer. Read full review

Pauline Kael

Intermittently dazzling, the film has more energy and invention that Boorman seems to know what to do with. He appears to take the title literally; one comes out exhilarated but bewildered.

Roger Ebert

As suspense thrillers go Point Blank is pretty good. Read full review

Andrew Sarris

Point Blank never makes too much sense. But the forward momentum of Lee Marvin's mysterious vendetta against the skyscraper underworld manages to overcome Boorman's laborious exposition. [19 Oct 1967, p.31]