Cool flick, but I prefer Payback

I'm staggered. To my mind the remake lacked soul & missed the point: Lee Marvin couldn't be reasoned with, couldn't be ignored as he had nothing to lose – he was dead already; Mel Gibson just came over – to me at least – as a bit of a dim thug.

I would call Point Blank a truly great film. I'm glad to see you appreciate it to some extent too. I'm sorry I can't share your appreciation for Payback.

*spoiler alert*

Payback is about a guy who kills people. Point Blank is a movie about a creature who inflicts suffering worse than death.

As someone I once spoke with about this movie pointed out: He doesn't *have* to kill anyone, they kill themselves to get away from him. Who is scarier and more powerful, the guy who shoots you, or the one who you are better off jumping out of a window to escape, because what he will do to you if you don't is worse?

The ending was done how it was for a reason. *Think* about why. Why would he, instead of outright killing the lead enemy, slide back into the shadows? Many people find that to be amazingly terrifying. A very similar ending was used in "Casino Royale" (a movie I have to think is based on Point Blank (look at the stylings of the fight scenes)). Why do these directors choose to have characters move into shadows instead of simply killing people? What does it mean, and how does it feel? Do you want your unstoppable killer to simply shoot you, or would you rather have it stare at you and slide into the shadows to strike whenever it feels like it, however it decides to do it, with you being powerless to stop the fate it decides on?

Point Blank is not a flick. It is a meditation on the dark, violent, brutal, inhuman parts of ourselves, and the darkness itself.

....Curiously, if the original had been handled the way the remake was, it probably wouldn't have been made.

If you prefer the tongue in cheek, cheap humor instead of the fine, subdued , black humor of point blank , then i understand how you could prefer the heap of hollywood horse sh!t that is Payback. Mam, you have your taste up yer arse.

When Demons are at the Door, you have to let em' in... Let em' in and kill em!

I watched this film second like yourself and realised that Payback was a remake. I prefer the original myself but Payback isn't that bad an effort. Get Carter on the other hand now...

My wife was like all women. Strange...and evil!

I liked Payback, I'm not hater of it. Mel gibson was good and it's absurd that people say his performance wasn't good, the only perosn i can see doing Payback better than him would be Michael Madsen.

But I still think Point Blank is A MILLION TIMES BETTER. for you hatin' on the flashbacks, come on they were pretty damn good. When he unloads his revolver ond the shells fall out in slow motion...come on thats badass. And john Boorman did a great job, reme,ber the scence where Walker (Lee Marvin at his best) goes to see Lynnes grave, there is a backhoe digging a grave and Walker walks so his in its arc. Watch the movie again and watch that scene and don't tell me it's foreshadowing the many graves that are gonna be dug for the people he's about to kill. Think about it. Paybacks good but not as good as Point Blank...end of story. Don't hate on either.

It's been a while since I saw "Point Blank" and I've never gotten around to "Payback." However, I do remember the rather fragmentary, sort of disjointed feel (and in this case, that's not a criticism) of "Point Blank" - which, if you've ever read it, is very much like the structure of "The Hunter," the Richard Stark (pseudonym for Donald Westlake)novel upon which both movies are based. The novel jumps around in time quite a bit, starting with Parker's quest for revenge and shifting to flashbacks and different points of view as the story unfolds. It really keeps you on your toes, always wondering just exactly what is happening. There are a few elements that are a bit dated - i.e., the ease with which Parker fakes a driver's license - but overall, the book still works quite well.

S.P.

The filmic devices that made Point Blank so revolutionary in 1967 were a cliche by 1999 precisely because of how influential Point Blank was. Payback deliberately avoids use of these devices and makes the revenge story it's focus, where Point Blank was more of an examination of the 1967 Los Angeles culture. The approaches of the films are entirely different, Payback was made to be an audience pleasing action/adventure film, where Point Blank's goal was to be deliberately iconoclastic & esoteric in nature.