I am sure I’m not the only one who immediately thinks of a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie when you look at the cover of the 1994 Australian telemovie Point of No Return (no, not the 1993 Point of No Return). However, unlike the Jean-Claude movies where even the bad ones gave you lots of action, this flick starring Marcus Graham dials back the bloodshed to roughly negative 1, stays in one setpiece for almost the entirety of the runtime and goes nowhere at an excruciatingly slow pace. Even when the film finally decides to attempt to keep you awake, the movie has only a few minutes left, and it’s too late for redemption. At least actress Nikki Coghill gets naked.
Point of No Return starts on a good note with character Grady (Marcus Graham) attending his brother’s funeral. Grady is currently serving jail time, but is given leave to go to the funeral, accompanied by two officers. Grady uses this chance to escape so he can find out who killed his brother. He meets up with his ex-lover Kate (Nikki Coghill), who was also sleeping with Grady’s brother, to see if she knows anything. She helps him by driving him around to a few friends and eventually shacks up at the brother’s cabin. After they find a tape that reveals the why and how of his brother’s murder, Grady decides to stay at the cabin for the rest of the movie and really, not do a damn thing. Seriously! Just like, I don’t know, get up and do something! Like anything!!!
Eventually, the film decides to throw you a bone with a bit of action near the end of the film. A pretty fun shootout and a night vision-wearing/katana sword-wielding bad guy later, we finally get to the end, an end that admittedly did have a bit of tension.
Like I said above, I was hoping for a fun, cheesy knock-off of a Van Damme flick, but instead, I got this movie, a movie that is way too boring and doesn’t do anything with its story.
There isn’t much information on the internet about Point of No Return. I managed to find one article that discussed the film’s DP, the late Louis Irving, arranging to have the movie get a 4K restoration, but I’m sitting here with the Umbrella DVD in my hand and not a Blu-ray, so I don’t know why they went that route. Maybe the digital version looks better? The DVD doesn’t look terrible, but there is some dirt and scratches cropping up in the transfer and the disc is barebones with no features and no menu. Disappointing, especially when it seems like Director Vincent Monton would gladly sit down and discuss the film.
Verdict
Point of No Return just isn’t interesting enough for me to recommend you check it out. Its glacial pace makes the 93-minute runtime a pain to get through. I do admit I enjoyed the ending and the bit of nudity, but that wasn’t enough to give this film a passing grade. However, if you do decide to pick it up, know the DVD from Umbrella is as bare as they come.