Classic Movie Review: 'Boiling Point'

Boiling Point (1993)

Directed by James B. Harris

Written by James B. Harris

Starring Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, Viggo Mortensen

Release Date April 16th, 1993

Published June 8th, 1993

Sometimes the making of a movie is far more interesting than the movie being made. That is unquestionably true of the 1993 crime drama, Boiling Point. The film began life as an independent film character study of a pair of seedy criminals, one striving for a better life, the other a hothead determined to destroy them both. A small part of that story was about the cop searching for both of these criminals as tension reaches a boiling point and they collide in a tragic series of events.

That's what Boiling Point was meant to be with Dennis Hopper playing a seasoned criminal low life with dreams of getting out alive and making a life for himself. Viggo Mortensen played the doomed hotheaded young criminal whose attraction to violence would be the downfall of both men. Wesley Snipes was to be the cop looking to arrest the two for killing a fellow cop in the midst of a robbery gone terribly, horribly wrong.

Then, something happened. As the film was being completed, Wesley Snipes became one of the hottest stars in Hollywood. Seeing that they had a chance to turn this cheap independent thriller into a box office bonanza on the back of one of the hottest stars in Hollywood, producers and studio execs demanded rewrites and reshoots to beef up Snipes role from a relatively minor supporting role to a presence they could promote in marketing the film.

This is all very obvious in the final Frankenstein's monster of a movie that is Boiling Point. Most scenes featuring Wesley Snipes have him interacting with people other than Hopper and Mortensen. Most of Mortensen's performance, including most of the depth of the character, has been excised to make room for more scenes featuring Wesley Snipes. Snipes's reshot scenes are clumsily sewn into the movie and rarely add any depth to the main story which still centers on Hopper's criminal trying and failing to be a better person.

Rather than the wild-eyed monster that Hopper would play in other villainous roles, his character in Boiling Point is a pathetic, fast-talking sadsack. He's a man who is desperate to escape his circumstances and when he sees a potential payday that could be the key to his happy ever after, he risks everything to get there. It's clear that there was an important subplot involving Hopper and Valerie Perrine who plays his ex-wife. Wanting to win her back, despite a history that includes violent abuse, is a big motivation for Hopper's character. But, as the movie shoved in more about Snipes, we got less of Perrine.

There are numerous examples of how executives cut up and rejiggered Boiling Point to capitalize on Wesley Snipes. The most glaring example is how Snipes rarely shares a scene with any of the rest of the cast, including Hopper and Mortensen. The only tangible link between Snipes and the rest of the movie comes from a reshot subplot in which Snipes' cop and a sex worker played by Lolita Davidovich, have an affair while she acts as a street informant for Snipes. She's also seeing Hopper's character as a client, but this somehow never becomes important to the plot.

As I said, the story behind the scenes of Boiling Point; the greedy, nasty, brutality of Hollywood movie magic is far more interesting than the actual movie. Boiling Point is rendered an unwatchable thudding bore of a movie. Snipes is a big star but its clear his heart is not in this movie. You can sense the paycheck influencing him far more than the plot or his character. He's bored and dejected and it's clear he'd rather be doing anything else than adding additional scenes to this movie.

Meanwhile, you can clearly see that Dennis Hopper is making a far different film than what we see in the final product. What Hopper and writer-director James B. Harris envisioned as a Cassavete in the 70s style character piece has been torn up and smashed back together as a modern noir star vehicle for an actor who was hardly intended to be in the film, let alone be the star of the movie. Hopper and Harris' vision was not a mainstream thriller but an indie drama about an aging criminal failing to find redemption.

It's quite sad and yet another cynical signpost in the history of Hollywood greed and exploitation. I do believe that there was potential in Boiling Point, especially in the vision of Hopper and Harris. I think Hopper is very compelling in Boiling Point when he's given the stage to play. But, sadly, when Snipes is grafted into more than 60% of the movie, as if another film were overtaking the first film idea, it becomes an abysmal thing to witness. The film was always going to be somber and introspective but the final product, via the awful editing and reshoots, renders the film a vacant void where a complete movie should be.

Boiling Point is rated by my co-host, M.J, on the Everyone's a Critic 1993 podcast as the worst movie we've watched on the show thus far. And this kid has seen the movie Hexed. Everyone's a Critic 1993 is a spinoff of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast where me, teenager M.J, and Gen-X-er Amy, watch the movies of 1993 in chronological release order. It's a fascinating window into the way movies and our culture have changed in just the past 3 decades. You can find the Everyone's a Critic 1993 podcast on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review podcast feed, wherever you listen to podcasts.

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