jake_fantom A turgid script filled with comic book villains, cheerful misogyny, and sappy dialog plus absolutely leaden performances by Kristofferson and Treat Williams (seriously, dude, your name is Treat?), and an incomprehensible plot, result in one of the least interesting action movies of the 80s. I believe this is a made-for-HBO movie before they figured out how to do series like the Sopranos. It looks like a typical no-budget made-for-TV movie with the addition of a couple of raunchy scenes and a few dozen swear words. The only thing more baffling than the end is why I watched it to the end. But as an act of generosity, I am awarding this turkey three whole stars - for the 3 minutes of screen time occupied by one of the film's stars, Rip Torn, who delivers a patented Rip Torn performance that at least lets you know you are watching an actual actor.

dazfiddy This film hardly gets any showing on television, but it fits in nicely into the sub genre of conspiracy thriller movies like Executive Action,Winter Kills and The Parallex View.This is a sideways look at the Kennnedy Conspiracy from the point of view of two bystanders who happen to be cops.Kris Kristoferson and Treat Williams play Border Patrol officers who stumbled upon a buried jeep, a body, a rifle and a whole lot of cash in the Texas desert.Who could it be?Why have the Feds shown up all of a sudden?Could there be a link?Should they take the money and split or investigate? It has a great cast of actors who would go on to be familiar faces like Tess Harper, Miguel Ferrer,Kurtwood Smith and Jean Smart.Kristoferson and Williams are always reliable actors.This an interesting movie that asks what happened to the Other Gunmen if you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was not acting alone on 22 November 1963.Oliver Stone's JFK was then first big studio movie to explicitly challenge the Warren Commission report.Some films are made just before their time, which means that it will be overlooked.

Robert J. Maxwell I'll skip the plot except to say that two Border Patrol agents find a horde of money in the desert, have a fight with nasties in which one agent is killed, and the survivor takes off with the stash for Mexico.You can't help watching this without thinking of Jack Nicholson in "The Border." "The Border" is far more believable. The heavy turns out to be Nicholson's best friend. And when Nicholson tries to rescue a damsel in distress in a Mexican cat house the bouncers clobber him and throw him into the street. (There's a moral lesson there somewhere.) And the social problem dealt with is real -- illegal immigrants.In "Flashpoint" everything is simpler. Except maybe the editing, which lost me here and there, someplace along Soledad Mountain and Thor Mountain and La Bonza Pass. Instead of commonplace human smuggling, "Flashpoint" has a Big Mystery that needs unraveling. There are James-Bond sorts of geophysical "ovulators" that are hidden in the ground and can tell when something passing is more than two feet tall.There's very little ambiguity. We know right away which of the boys is strong and which is weak. Treat Williams comes to work drunk and the taller, older, deeper-voiced Kris Kristofferson must sober him up. And we know that Williams is the more idealistic of the two because there is a scene in which Kristofferson tells his girlfriend so. There are two women involved -- Tess Harper and Jean Smart -- and I like them because neither is staggeringly beautiful, but they really add nothing to the plot except to establish the fact that Kristofferson and Williams are not lovers themselves. The women disappear when no longer needed.We know right away who the bad guys are too. Why? Because they LOOK bad. Kurtwood Smith. There's a name to conjure with. Like Michael Ironsides the poor guy is a die-stamped heavy. He looks like the kind of guy of whom the neighbors say, "He mostly kept to himself." His facial features are in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin. If he does nothing more than show his face he's guilty of indecent exposure. He cannot speak without sneering. He's insulting when he doesn't need to be. He's cynical and vulgar. He wears street shoes instead of boots -- and a SUIT. And of course he's a remorseless killer.He represents a problem though, for those viewers given to trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. What is he actually DOING there? At one point he deliberately foils a drug bust. Is he there because of something to do with drugs? Evidently not, because later on he tries frantically to cover up the Big Mystery. Maybe that's his job. But in that case, why do he and his assistants show up before anyone even realizes that there is a Big Mystery to be solved? And what agency does he represent? Well, here's his explanation. Kristofferson: "Who are you?" Smith: "I'm a fixer. I fix things." Kristofferson: "What do you fix?" Smith: "Whatever needs fixing." The mind is inexorably whisked back to "The Border" because Harvey Keitel is in "The Border," and those are roughly his lines in two or three movies he's made with people like Quention Tarantino. On the other hand, similar job specs crop up pretty commonly all over the place, like chicken pox among third graders.The acting is adequate. No more than that. There is a scene in "The Border" in which Nicholson and Keitel are leaving work and Keitel is rambling on thoughtfully about how little difference their work makes to anyone. The employers want the illegals, and the illegals want the work. Sometimes, Keitel muses, it almost seems like we're on the wrong side. At this point, Nicholson halts, half turns to Keitel, and asks, "What are you fishing for?" The scene only last thirty seconds yet it illustrates the difference between ordinary actors and very talented actors indeed. There is nothing like this scene in "Flashpoint." The lines all sound written out, and not always well. Treat Williams, who was great in "Prince of the City," is underwhelmed by the script here. He's given a joke to tell in a bar -- something about a car full of penguins -- and everyone at his table is drinking beer and flushed with laughter -- and the joke just isn't funny.Yet the movie is engaging. Pale green Border Patrol jeeps bounce around on rough sandy desert roads. The Sonoran desert has never looked better. And Roberts Blossom as a wiry and sharp old aeronautical engineer is fun. I think the performance I most enjoyed was Rip Torn's. He's almost always good, but in the role of the sheriff he could easily pass for the home-grown Texan that he is. A real pro.Worth seeing. No messages. A little confusing, but well paced and packed with mystery and color.

MovieCriticMarvelfan William Tanner makes a very memorable and enjoyable flick with "Flashpoint". Good premise Treat Williams and Kris play two border portral guards going nowhere (like many in California). They soon uncover a buried dead body and jeep but next to that they find a bundle of cash. It turns out the cash was the loot of a former crook now dead.Kristofferson's character wants to cash in the money and get the hell out of town but Williams characters wants to investigate why this sap got killed. LOL It's a little far fetch but the last half hour make up for it.I loved another depiction of the FBI as the oorrupt greedy corporation they are especially with the guy from Robocop playing a crooked agent.Could have used more action but "Flashpoint" has good acting and a good soundtrack.