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Pointless Point of No Return
American remake of La Femme Nikita fails to top the original
by Eric Kesseiring
Collagist Sue
The new film, Point of No
Return, is your basic action,
hired killer, twisted plot,
romance-thriller. You say you
don't understand?
Bridget Fonda plays Maggie,
a violent anti-social city type.
After her gang of friends loses a
firefight with the police,
Maggie, in a drug withdrawn
stupor, takes off her headphones
and kills a cop. She is
sentenced to death.
Maggie awakes after her
execution to find that she has
received a second chance of
sons. Either she can either
become a government assassin
or she can be killed for real.
The smart girl that she is,
Maggie chooses 'C'.
She tries to escape by holding
her case worker at gunpoint.
Her ingenuity earns her a bullet
in the leg and a newfound
respect for the government.
Once Maggie sets her mind to
it, she turns from psychotic rat
to a well mannered Lldy/hitman.
Her last test is to murder a VIP
and escape out a bathroom
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JIM TRAVERS, JR.
Entertainment
Fire in
New alien flick fails to
'spark' much interest
Did you ever notice that all
books that come out with a
movie based on their story are
never quite as exciting or
interesting? Silence of the
Lambs was an excellent
movie but the book was far
better.
The same applies with the
true story of the disappearance
of Travis Walton, who claims
he was captured by aliens.
The book was intriguing and
made the flying saucer bit
almost believable, but Fire In
the Sky totally shot all of the
story's credibility.
Five men in the deep
forests of Silgrass National
Park are returning from a hard
day's work of clearing trees
when they spy a brilliant red
light coming from a hill in
the distance. Fright and
curiosity overwhelm the five
men. They can either continue
on the road leading straight
for the light or spend the
night in the forest. Guess
what, they decide to forge on
and when they reach the sight,
fear stops them in their
tracks.
by Jennifer Toubakaris
Collegian Staff
window. Fate, of course,
dictates that the window is
bricked over. The resulting
explosive gunfight leaves a
really bad taste in Maggie's
mouth when it comes to
killing.
Her reentry into the world
spills into California where she
falls deeply in love with a rather
dim starving artist. However,
romance cannot delay the
inevitable. It's fine to dislike
killing, but when your job is as
an assassin, something has got
to give.
The main thing that gives is
the quality of the movie. Point
Of No Return is a remake of a
French film, La Femme Nikita.
I should have expected
problems. Point Of No Return
is a sorry remake because it
lacks the character that literally
bleeds from the original.
La Femme Nikita possesses a
charm that eludes Point Of No
Return. I admit, Nikita was by
no means perfect. For one, a
certain humor is added when the
English is dubbed into a French
film. In addition, the original
film was jerky in places and
lacked a conclusive ending.
the
Travis Walton, played by
D.B. Sweeny, The Cutting
Edge, gets out of the truck
and approaches the light. In a
trance-like state he stares
above at the huge spaceship
bottom looks like a swirl of
molten lava. Suddenly the red
light turns to blue and Walton
is pounded by this invisible
force. His body is lifted and
then disposed of, falling back
to the ground.
His four friends, believing
he is dead, take off and leave
Walton's body there. Walton's
best friend, Mike Rogers,
played by Robert Patrick
(Terminator II), feels guilty
and returns for his buddy,
only to find he has
disappeared.
Hmm. . . what happens
next? The four men are then
accussed of murdering
Walton, yet the town has no
evidence against them. Rogers
tells the story about Walton
being abducted by aliens (like
anybody's going to believe
him - and they don't). But on
the fifth day after Walton's
disappearance he returns, buck
naked and starving.
It's too bad that the movie
swung from one mediocre
scene to the next. The acting
Thursday, March 25, 1993
The attempts to clean up the
movie remove Nikita' s gritty
charm. Fonda's character is
silly when compared to the
primal charisma that Anne
Parillaud brought to the role.
Of course, Point Of No Return
is a far slicker movie. The
action and plot are much tighter.
The difference between the
film is highlighted in a martial
arts training scene. The
instructor asks each girl to try
to hit him. Maggie makes
karate sounds until the guy
turns away in disdain. Then she
decks him. In the original, the
moment the instructor says "hit
me" he is slapped in the face.
The remake is dramatic, but not
as classy.
It's like drawing Mickey
Mouse with five fingers: More
accurate, but absurdly wrong.
Point Of No Return sacrifices
dialogue and character
development to provide consist
ency. The simple problem is
that actual events are
unimportant compared to how
they are executed. La Femme
Nikita has an attitude problem,
Point Of No Return simply has
no attitude.
wasn't that bad; Sweeny was
convincing as the confused
and sweet boy who asked
Rogers, "You came back?
You left me there."
Patrick also played his part
well as the tough, rugged
mountain man who stands up
for himself after being accused
of his best friend's murder.
But to pull a movie off
about aliens abducting a
human and resist making the
headlines of The National
Enquirer, this movie needed
more.
The special effects redeemed
the movie a little. The inside
of the spaceship resembled a
bee hive with instead of
honey, mushy beds for the
human prey. The aliens look
like miniature ET's, minus
the tender expressive faces.
But even so, all this could
have been better.
An attempt was made and
failed at this movie. Instead of
making the audience believe
that there may be other forms
of life out there, Fire In the
Sky gives us one more reason
to laugh off these tales as
being insane and give the
Enquirer and Star magazines
yet another ludicrous headline
to publish.