User reviews

ironically this and the negotiator were on the same night, both written by the same writer and both kick ass, dialog between Donnie

and john is very cool sounding and enjoyable, also the action is pretty fun, kinda has a heat feel to it and point break but u really seem to get to know and understand the robbers and the police and feel for them i don't get the feeling of a generic back robber movie, maybe thats because this is a TV movie, and they can suck, but who knows they seem to have improved with TV (anyone catch burn notice THAT SHOW ROCKS) and action TV seems to be on a rise, thank god,so for good action and good characters watch this while its still on, for it is a limited series

My husband and I really like this program. We cannot wait for each episode to find out what happens next. The writing is better than a lot of TV shows today, the acting is good, and the suspense level is high. As an English teacher, I love that Wahlberg's character cannot stand poor grammar. The fact that the lead bank robber, Leguizamo, is a bank robber with a heart and feelings reminds me that this is only a TV show and not reality. Although the bank robbers are former solders who served in Iraq, I am sure they will be dealt with on a terrorist-type level. There are enough twists and turns to keep my interest and make me want to tune-in every week. Boo to the nay sayers! Keep it going.

By and large TV mini-series are horrible little things, plagued by low production values and actors that barely qualify as B-list. Occasionally you see a Stephen King story pop up that is told fairly well, but other than that the field is sparse with anything of decent quality. Because of this, the Kill Zone deserves special attention for what it is - an extremely well produced piece of television that falls more in line with a moderately low budget movie than the typical TV mini-series you run into.

The acting is top notch, Leguizamo and Wahlberg(who looks exactly like Bruce Willis circa 1990 oddly) deliver performances worthy of any film and the rest of the cast who are primarily unknowns(except for an appearance by Wahlberg's Saw 2 nemesis, Jigsaw himself, Tobin Bell) all fill their purpose more than adequately.

Unfortunately it does has its share of flaws, otherwise it wouldn't be stuck on a mediocre cable network as a mini series to begin with. Primarily there are a number of plot holes and quite a few issues of improbable occurrences(a massive fire fight between two heavily armed forces that results in the casualty of not one character central to the story for example), so basically the stuff you can typically lay at the foot of any action oriented movie, series, or other.

The basic story however is quite solid, and has multiple layers presented to keep it from just being some guys holding hostages in a bank for 8 hours straight. While some of these lines are never taken to their true potential(primarily Tobin Bell's involvement) in favor of keeping the focus on Leguizamo and Wahlberg's interaction, for the most part they serve their purpose.

All in all, you have to look at this series for what it is. A mini-series on Spike with a moderate budget at best. And for what it has going for it, it is damn good and a solid 8 hours of entertainment. And really, what more can we ask from our TVs? Not everything need be a masterpiece.

I just finished watching the pilot myself. I couldn't help but think how well done this was.

"The Nine" had a similar premise, but it fell flat of expectations. "The Kill Point," by contrast, was tautly suspenseful, was laden with brilliantly crafted characters, and brought the sublime talents of Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo to the forefront.

The writing made you actually feel for the characters, both "good" and "bad." Wahlberg and Leguizamo play off each other perfectly in a cat-and-mouse hostage game which, at least, kept me guessing as to how it was all going to play out.

Even the smaller details, like the cinematography and music, the colors used by the production designer, the little quirks of all the characters, make this story feel so real despite the implausibility of it all.

This is a show well worth watching, and I can't imagine not loving every moment of this truly intelligent miniseries. In the end, I wish more shows were done this well.

I was channel surfacing one night and fell headlong into this film. The reason I stayed and checked it out was due to the explosive action and the quick developing drama. Pulling up a chair, I continued to watch as it looked interesting and the major character was someone I recognized immediately from other action movies. I eventually gleaned from the episode that a group of Iraq Era Ex-soldiers has assembled and planned to rob a bank. Their leader was known as Mr. Wolf (John Leguzamo) That immediately gave me reason to return for the next episode. The good guy of the movie was also a notable actor in his own right. The Captain of the S.W.A.T team and main negotiator was known as Cali Horst (Donnie Wahlberg). They along with several other notable actors made the series plausible and entertaining. What developed in the story however was a character creating situation which continued to evolve into a rather standard and dull situation. From modern directors I expect something different. This film started out reminiscent of "Ocean's Eleven" but soon froze into a 'Petrified Forest' remake. It also contains several plastic stereotypes, which bent over backwards trying not to insult any religious, ethnic, or sexual element. After watching the last episode, I was wrong in my initial assessment. Had it not been for Leguzamo, this movie would have been written off as "Same Old, Same Old.' As it is, he made it worth finishing, disappointing as it was. ***

"Kill Point" is a very, intense movie and worth the watch. I really don't expect TV Mini Series to be worth watching unless they're on Pay Cable or something, but I don't think this was on Pay TV, which means this should have "sucked". Anyway, this was a "nail-biting" suspense that delivered from start to finish. It was a very addicting watch, and I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. There was no ridiculous Character development, or far fetched scenes that stinks of lazy/ stupid writing. All the Characters were well written and behaved as if they were really in a hostage situation. This movie is good enough that after watching it, all the parties involved are seen in a new respectful, light. I also gained new respect for all the Actors in the movie. Donny Wahlberg who is pretty much dismissed as Mark Walhberg's, less talented, older Brother is actually fantastic. John Leguizamo was also very good as the Hostage Taker who has to manage an intense situation, and try to maintain his honor. Of course, it's not an Academy Awards acting job, but they were worth watching because this was a great movie, and I would recommend it to even the hardcore action/ suspense movie goers.

I too thought it was lame at the beginning, cliff hangers were OK, suspense and drama nothing new and most importantly the cast sucked. Great acting by John Leguz, and Donny Wal, if they hadn't taken the bulk of the screen time I would have changed the channel a long time ago. I have to give kudos to John and Donnie for being able to carry a crappy cast like that and being able to keep the viewer in tune. Who the hell was that lady cop criticizing Donnie all the time, she sucked. The show was good in my view, but with a better cast, it would have been great... but not to be a hater I watched all the shows on my dvr and was entertained. Thanks for the show but work on the ending, kinda weak sauce.

What can I say, I never thought this cast could pull it off. I've tuned into every episode and it keeps me wanting more every time.

I thought the plot was impossible at first but then as I watched, I realized what an excellent job they've done at making this show realistic and intense.

If you dislike this show, then obviously you have a different taste for drama. This show provides a twist to the bank heist shows/movies we've seen in the past.

John Leguizamo as a lead cast member is excellent. He's really captured the dramatic and intense nature of the character he portrays. Never thought he could do it!

As for Donnie Walhberg, well if you haven't noticed since this is a Lions Gate production, they do have they favourites they like to use. (Anyone notice jigsaw :-P) Anyhow I've become a fan of Donnie after seeing his performance in a few recent flicks. He's come a long way from the New Kids On The Block days!

Gotta love Lions Gate as they keep coming out with some unique products lately that the audience hasn't seen before!

Good Job!

this is an enjoyable series--well worth the watch. and if you want to put it in Hollywood lingo, then it is a 21st century "dog day afternoon", without the Attica chant. and if you don't know that film--see it. that's the meat of the series, but after viewing some decent twists in the middle, the end turns into a broke down copy of "heat".

and after watching a couple of episodes, it becomes obvious why the two leads went for this project: the writing and lead parts are exactly what mature actors dream of, and the producers must have convinced them that the small budget would be seen on the screen, and not end up on producer's expense accounts.

i'm an old recon marine, and some of the early tactical stuff had me cringing. but this can be partially discounted by the bandits being regular grunts and not trained for speed, but when the sarge called former marines--soldiers--throughout the series, i about soiled my sheets. we don't do that. we are not ordinary soldiers. i know. i was in the army and the marines.

but again, this is a great series--that is if you're into realistic television. it has many flaws: like dumping a cop in a populated area when he could have been dumped, blindfolded in the woods and thwarted the outcome; and whenever a killshot was needed and should be made by pros, they all shot as badly as the comedic, t.v. A team; and then there's the female vet/swat officer who acts like she was a three tour grunt who knifed tangos in their sleep for fun, instead of realistically being a truck driver who had a rifle in the cab too dirty to fire; and then there was the story's massively overworked murphy's law of extraction; and also the military insignia worn on swat gear (which would be a p.r. death to a police department), most probably used, against technical advice, as a time-saving Hollywood device so the viewers could identify officers wearing gas masks later in the show.

but throughout the strong points fully outweigh the weak. there is well fledged character development. and that is very hard to find. and all good springs from competent writing, a series time frame to grow in, and a production team dedicated to the project. despite obviously disregarding adviser input.

one of my favorites about this series is that it was not produced to go beyond one season--and then only eight episodes. that took balls. look how far they elongated "prison break", now there was a one season show extended over and over again because the ratings were strong.

and how the hell did it show up on spike? it may have been produced first then put up for sale--and spike was the only one ready to buy for the right price--or it may have been flatly rejected because it was too short for a series, and too long for a mini series, and since it fits neither.... anyway, what a shame, and this shows the limited vision of network t.v. executives.

This show is awesome! It's unpredictable & it's exciting. The performances are awesome as well. There is a great dialoge with a great story. It is about a group of soldiers that fought in Iraq & want their pension. They also want some respect for all their hard work and fighting (That's true. Some some respect to our soldiers!). John Leguizamo plays the main "villain" in the show, Jake Mendes aka Mr. Wolf. Mr. Wolf is not really bad guy. He is doing a terrible thing, but you see that he does regret about some of his decisions. A real villain would not do that. Donnie Wahlberg plays the police negoitater, Horst Cali. He is just as tough as Mr. Wolf & is determined that no one dies while he is in command. I can't wait to see how it all comes down.

A few queries about the last episode which I hope can be answered.

Can someone tell this Londoner what the closing comments of this series means "1013 for ever". Also who was the man in the car who got the money from the bank and handed it over at the very end?

American words and phrases which are not international can confuse people such as me- other than that I really enjoyed this series - just wish the hostage who had no one meet him could have been befriended by someone from the crowd or the other hostages friends still I accept that this is not a Disney series and that not everyone lives happily ever after.

Thanks

A quiet working day in the centre of Pittsburgh is momentarily disrupted when a group of masked armed men walk into a bank and, with ruthless efficiency rob it and leave within minutes. However a passing cop, a security van and an FBI agent all come together at the wrong moment for the gang and the result is a gun battle in the street. Retreating back into the bank, the groups leader, Mr Wolf immediately sets up a hostage situation and prepares to defend the bank. Outside, Police negotiator Horst Cali learns that he is facing a group of Iraq veterans and political pressure starts to mount on him and his working style.

This got a bit of a mention in The Times and Guardian and it made me decide to check it out. Although it was not brilliant, the show was short enough both in terms of running time of each episode (if you forward the adverts) and the overall season (eight episodes). To be honest the main thing that grabbed me about it was that it does seem to have been somewhat of an acting "busman's holiday" for a chunk of the cast of HBO's brilliant The Wire. Sadly the overriding thought in my head seeing so many of them together in one place was that it is genuinely unlikely any will ever have work that good again, but still it was nice to see them. On The Kill Point itself, the series throws the viewer right into the bank job and the first episode is pretty frantic. In the style of 24 it tries to keep this up and some episodes do really well on it, but it does have frequent and clunky dips in pace that frustrate.

These aside, it must also be said that the whole series is not quite a great example of how to maintain pace and deliver within a thriller. The themes surrounding Iraq are held up like billboards rather than woven into the story and characters and likewise some emotional content is ham-fisted in delivery and just serves to suck dramatic tension out of the series rather than increasing it by adding depth. That said it still functions at a level that the majority will find distracting, if never really gripping. The direction gives proceedings tension but somehow never nails "urgency" in the way that I wanted.

The cast back up the "solid but not special" feel that the whole thing has, with reasonable performances from reasonable actors. Leguizamo leads the cast well with the strongest performance and character, getting the conflict and urgency in his character. Wahlberg is nearly as good when given the material but his grammar pedantry is nonsense (his own dialogue is full of "less" instead of "fewer" and such) and it is a crass quirk that doesn't work. Davidson is satisfyingly unhinged and works well with Grillo's incredibly buff (and I say this as a straight guy) and charming performance. The Wire's Fitzpatrick and JD Williams are both good but don't have much to do – the latter in particular quite hard to watch as he doesn't have a lot to get his teeth into in the way he did in The Wire. Although really this could be said of all of them but not in the same way. Hyatt has more time on screen than in The Wire (where she was Avon's sister) but she is not that good with it and she cannot get her character to work. Conversely Michael Williams seems to be unable to escape the wonderful character of Omar, although fan that I am, this is not a bad thing really. He has dialogue that could have been given to Omar (with a bit of tightening) but for the majority of the series he appears to be in his own show, totally detached in terms of plot and material from the rest of the goings-on! Enough "The Wire" chat though, I am conscious that I am already a bore on the subject, but the connection does add a novelty value to this show that it probably doesn't deserve. On its own terms, The Kill Point doesn't totally work but it has enough trash appeal to just about make it worth seeing if you want a couple of months of disposable distraction. It is far from being Dog Day Afternoon (although it has a touch of that), it lacks the urgency and pace of 24 (when it is good) and the writing lets it sag far too often for its own good but for the undemanding viewer it might just do the job.

I admit i am already a huge Donnie Wahlberg fan, so i had had high hopes for this mini-series. I purchased the series off play after it being recommended to me by a friend who knows that i like Donnie. I decided to start watching it on a Sunday and after watching the pilot episode i had to keep watching to find out what happened and ended up losing my whole day to this series, but i tell you it was the best way to spend a Sunday.

The acting is amazing and the storyline just has you hooked all the way through with some great twists you just don't know where the story is going to go next. Hats off to John Legizamo he plays this role brilliantly and really draws you in, you actually feel for him and he manages to make you go through all the emotions with him, and of Course Donnie was brilliant and the two of them together really make this show what it is.There is also a very strong supporting cast but its the scenes between Donnie and John that are so strong and gripping edge of your seat stuff.

i would tell anyone to get hold of this series and give up a few days to it you wont regret it, there should be more shows like this. 9/10.

While not in the same gritty caliber as some cable shows are (the Shield, Deadwood, Sopranos) it does have some strong acting and good writing. There was a comment about it's 'anti-war' sentiment, but I really don't see that at all. Leguizamo's speech is not truly anti-war, but getting the government to support the troops in in the fashion that they MUST be supported. Never does the show give the message that 'the war is bad' and those people who think that are just reading into his speech what they want to hear. The plot is a little weak, but but the acting and the dialogue is strong and well delivered. The Kill Point is certainly worth a look.

Give it a try. It's only 8 episodes long (just a mini-series) but replays fairly often.

This series was so good, I had to cancel all of my plans on Sunday night to watch The Kill Points, this series is not so unrealistic, I love the suspense, and the strategies they used. Something that I founded weird is that since the series played every week, it kind of made like they were in the bank forever, but they actually were for maybe 3 days? If you did not watch this series, I recommend so, it is full of suspense, and action and it brings a whole new meaning to honor and leader.

I would love to see a other series of The Kill Points, and I the season finale is just the best part of the whole series.

A fairly enjoyable action story, with flaws and improbabilities as noted in reviews above, but overall worth an afternoon's viewing. As a local, I enjoyed the visuals of Pittsburgh locales. However, "Horst Cali"?? Pittsburgh police come in all sizes, shapes, genders and ethnicities. A few may even in their spare time and private lives function as amateur grammarians. But "Horst Cali" a Pittsburgh police negotiator? L.A. maybe. That said, the story line was engrossing and the mixed bag of hostages interesting, some more believable than others, e.g. the father and son and Pittsburgh's own Bingo O'Malley. When I first saw this series, I taped it for future use. I think I'll spend what is forecast to be a rainy afternoon watching it again.

Overall I thought the series was interesting. I know it's only a tv series, fiction, but one thing didn't make sense. When the FBI agent stood up at the bank and walked outside to shoot at the bank robbers. This is one person with a hand gun against 4 or 5 people with automatic weapons. And it was a shootout on the street which would place innocent victims at risk. If it was real, I don't think that ever would have happened.

I had great hopes for this show. The idea, the plot and the action depicted in the teasers, all seemed great, but the show was a great disappointment!

....maybe not to all viewers, but anyone with ANY experience from military, security or law- enforcement will definitely be embarrassed to see this pathetic attempt at portraying soldiers and police.

The great lack of thoroughness in the production became evident in the first shoot-out outside the bank and continued through several embarrassing scenes throughout the season. I don't even know where to start! ...experienced soldiers and police shooting hundreds of bullets at close range without hitting anyone, SWAT-guys with all brand new equipment, who don't know how to move, hold a weapon, aim or fire. Even the female SWAT-commander has not been taught how to draw, hold or fire her glock. I could go on and on! ...and then there's the continuity-errors!

All in all: amateurish!!! I haven't seen so much bullshit action-acting since the so-called "special forces" in Die Hard 2!

This is a well crafted heist story. It kept my attention through the entire series. Most of the characters and actors were great. John Leguizamo shines in his role as the lead bank robber. However, some of the characters were a little bit over the top including a hostage negotiator who is obsessed with grammar. That's just a bit too much for my taste. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys thrillers. It is very exciting and suspenseful, but still the writing and dialogue is not as great as it could be. But hey, it's just a mini-series, right? Definitely watch this if you've got some time to kill and are looking for something to keep interest. Overall, a great series.