Boiling Point (1993)

A pair of sociopath killers take on the police and the mob in order to make one last big score.

Director:

James B. Harris

Writers:

Gerald Petievich (novel), James B. Harris (screenplay)

Stars:

Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Lolita Davidovich

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wesley Snipes	...	Jimmy
Dennis Hopper	...	Red
Lolita Davidovich	...	Vikki
Viggo Mortensen	...	Ronnie
Seymour Cassel	...	Leach
Jonathan Banks	...	Max
Christine Elise	...	Carol
Tony Lo Bianco	...	Dio
Valerie Perrine	...	Mona
James Tolkan	...	Levitt
Paul Gleason	...	Transaction Man
Lorraine Evanoff	...	Connie
Stephanie Williams	...	Sally (as Stephanie E. Williams)
Tobin Bell	...	Roth
Bobby Hosea	...	Steve

Storyline

Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Their new business is to organize fake-money sales and then kill the buyer to take his money; but when Ronnie kills an undercover secret service agent, his partner Jimmy Mercer vows revenge and is given one week to catch the killers before being transferred.

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Plot Keywords:

police officer | revenge | undercover | old flame | organized crime | 

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Taglines:

He's a cop who reached the Boiling Point

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Country:

USA France

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 April 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Money Men

Filming Locations:

Hollywood Palace Theater - 1735 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,006,019, 18 April 1993

Gross USA:

$10,058,318

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$10,058,318

Company Credits

Production Co:

StudioCanal

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Max Waxman, the character played by Jonathan Banks was also present in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) played by Christopher Allport. Both films are adaptations from Gerald Petievich's novels.

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Goofs

When the junkie girl blows up the house with built up gas from the stove, there is a flame showing lit in blue on one of the stove burners before she strikes the lighter; there would be no gas built up in the house... There would be no explosion.

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Quotes

Tony Dio: Fuck you!
[Ronnie shoots him]
Rudolph 'Red' Diamond: Fuck me?
[laughs]

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Connections

Referenced in La noche de...: Boiling Point (2004)

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Soundtracks

Money Men Blues
Written and Produced by Mitchell Marcoulier
Performed by Sweat Pea Atkinson

User Reviews

Out of Steam

Boiling Point was too pithy to be a successful thriller; too low profile to be a successful action movie. If the plot had thrown more twists, offered more insight on the characters psyche, or had a much more involving story, the movie could have sufficed even as a decent thriller. Had there been explosives, chase scenes, and other good action ploys, this movie could've made a decent action film. However, it is not much of either category, thus suffering from mediocrity.

Police detective, Jimmy Mercer (Wesley Snipes) and his partner, Brady (Dan Hedaya), are investigating the shooting death of an undercover U.S. Treasury agent who investigating a counterfeit ring. The two guys who he was dealing with, gunned him down and fled the scene, before Mercer and Brady could intervene and save their partner. Mercer and Brady don't know who the two men were, but spend the remainder of the movie looking for him.

Actually, they are fast-talking Red Diamond (Dennis Hopper), so named because of his red hair. He owes fifty grand to another gangster within seven days. He and his partner, Ronnie (Viggo Mortensen), an eerie kind of guy who is never sure if Red is just handing him a line of garbage with all the schemes he involves him in. Although, for Ronnie, he would have no problem shooting Red. Why Ronnie remains faithful to him at all given Red's consistent failures is beyond me. These two guys need a get rich quick counterfeit scheme.

Meanwhile Mercer and Brady are going from one informant to another, trying to get them to give up information about Red and Ronnie, a description, their location, anything. Sometimes they're successful and sometimes not. The movie goes on and on like as the two trail one person after another trying to get close on the trail of Red and Ronnie. It is wholly uninteresting, offering no real suspense and even less action to fill the time. The movie fails to deliver any real substance in between, which is sad when you consider the possibility of your characters, and especially, the potential of the actors.