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R-Point

R-Point (2004)

August. 13,2004
|
6.2
| Horror Action History

On 07 January 1972, the South Korean base in Nah-Trang, Vietnam, receives a radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead.

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TinsHeadline
2004/08/13

Touches You

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Chirphymium
2004/08/14

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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InformationRap
2004/08/15

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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Billy Ollie
2004/08/16

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Leofwine_draca
2004/08/17

R-POINT is one of the recent wake of films that cross the barriers between warfare and horror to deliver a kind of startling, in-your-face type of movie in which unlucky soldiers find themselves dealing with both enemy gunfire and spirits of the dead. DEATHWATCH and THE BUNKER are two of the best-known examples, although as a film, R-POINT ably holds its own with those two and offers a highly atmospheric film with just a few flaws that stop it being perfect. I'll list the flaws first; the script, for instance, is very much mundane and repetitive, consisting of the main characters shouting at each other a lot and calling each other expletives. In fact there isn't a great deal of characterisation in the movie as a whole, with only one or two unique characters among a lot of other interchangeable ones. The main other flaw is that the film is too darn mysterious for its own good; the ghostly horror is never really fully explained, and there'll be a lot of confusion if you don't pay the utmost attention to every scene throughout the film.Now for the good stuff: R-POINT is a film that makes full use of the spooky, isolated locations. The creepy jungles are interspersed with creepy bush scenes, haunted graveyards, and a rotting Chinese temple. Best of all is an old hospital, by the looks of it, which recalls the kind of 'evil derelict building' seen in low budget US horrors like SESSION 9 and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Fill most of these locations with rotted corpses and weird goings-on and you have a truly spooky film that, while never reaching terrifying heights, packs more than a few scares into the running time. Much is made of superstition, glimpses of people who really shouldn't be there, and one or two great shocks, such as the scene with the guy sitting on the steps who gets a literal and unexpected bloodbath. The main menace in the film is a girl in a long white dress with long black hair; yep, the cliché stock character of many an Asian horror flick in the wake of RING.The war elements of the film feel as realistic as other recent entries into the genre and there's a fair amount of bloodshed to add to the gritty appeal. The best scene by far is the finale, a bloody shoot-out on the level of RESERVOIR DOGS, in which the heroic lieutenant separates the wheat from the chaff by ordering his men to identify themselves; those who can't are clearly possessed. It's a sequence which recalls the infamous blood-test interlude in John Carpenter's THE THING, and while not as knuckle-whitening as in that particular film, it still packs an undeniable punch and ends the film on a high. Unsurprisingly, a Hollywood remake is on the horizon

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Dan Ashley (DanLives1980)
2004/08/18

R-Point is essentially a small horror film that pays homage to such Japanese horrors as The Grudge or The Ring, but then also to classics such as Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, and is a film I rate highly as an enjoyable and effective wartime ghost story.A disgraced Lieutenant, a stone cold Sergeant and a literal Dirty Dozen of the South Korean army's VD infected. You can tell that the brass doesn't care whether these men come back or not. They're expendable and the mission is damned from the start anyway. The only reason they're there is the incentive that if they complete the mission, they get to go home.Their mission is to enter R-Point, a strategic vantage point on an island between South Korea and Vietnam and find the missing men sent there and having disappeared after sending a very strange distress call back to HQ.R-Point is a cheap little horror film that makes the very most of what it does have to offer, and that is atmosphere and suspense. The visuals are beautiful, the location is beautiful and even if the dialogue is a bit silly at times, the actors do a damn fine job considering I don't know any of them.From start to finish, R-Point subtly builds tension and atmosphere and plays on the imagination using the power of suggestion, allowing for multiple agendas and outcomes to come of what happens throughout.Conventionally it doesn't do anything new but admirably improves an old and exploited genre that has seen a small comeback with the likes of Deathwatch and Outpost, relying on human drama, intrigue and multiple strand narratives to keep the audience guessing as to how the end will happen rather than what the outcome will most typically be.Untypically, its characters are all very different people with complex pasts and concerns in their lives. No one is typically maddened or emotionally disturbed by the war. In fact it is highly suggested that the toughest of the platoon's soldiers are liars who have barely even seen combat and are terrified by the prospect. Having said all that, I feel that the climax is a bit of a let down, in the sense that so much tension built is spent on revealing the not so clever conclusion. It saves itself by being kind of creepy and I suppose by giving a nod to classic Asian ghost stories. But it seemed like it was going to be different and it gave no real surprises.Still a fantastic film and very well made but don't hold your breath... if you can help it!

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gabridl
2004/08/19

I've seen quite a few decent Asian movies. This isn't one. The plot is obvious. The characters are flat and silly. There's pointless yelling substituting for emotion. The setting is unconvincing. There's little tension or fear. The score is generic. The shots are crude. And the simple karmic ghost story does little justice either to the genre of horror or war. If you want something creepy and interesting, try Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure" (1997), or if you prefer something Korean, "Spider Forest" (2004). "R-Point" was a tremendous disappointment, especially considering the raves other IMDb posters have been giving it. I can only surmise that these reviewers have suffered the same fate as the characters in "R-Point": creeping insanity or supernatural possession. I'd say that's a case of revenge of "Ringu."

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filtekk
2004/08/20

I thought it was a pretty good flick considering that i can't stand reading movies as if they were comic books... and this film in particular certainly qualifies as one to say the very least. i.e.; -(G.I. Joe from Korea meets Fangoria) The only aspect of this film that had me scratching the dandruff outta my head was wondering who it was that played the role of Sergeant 1st class Beck... the Black-American g.i. soldier in the film whos'e role went uncredited. Does anybody out there in IMDb- land know the actors name who played the role of Sergeant Beck? Perhaps I may have dozed a bit between snoozing and the Twilight Zone, but I'd also like to know how Joey Anselmo fit into the film as I don't recollect seeing him anywhere throughout the entirety of this creature-feature Asian thriller.

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