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Movie Review: 'Trigger Point'

Barry Pepper stars in professionally forgettable action flick, Trigger Point, from the folks at Chicken Soup for the Soul.

By Sean PatrickPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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The new action movie Trigger Point gets off to a very strange start from the very first production logo. The film comes under the Chicken Soup for the Soul production banner, This is literally the company that has branded Chicken Soup for the Soul for over a decade and not a snarky boutique production that lifted the brand name. This is bizarre because Trigger Point is a B-movie action flick about assassins doing assassinations.

To say this is off-brand would be a bit of an understatement. It creates a bizarre expectation that perhaps Trigger Point is going to enrich our souls and impart a warm and thoughtful life lessons. Instead, Barry Pepper sweats and shoots people and gets shot at. It’s a dissonance that the movie never really overcomes. I laughed at the juxtaposition of the premise of Trigger Point and the production company behind it that I likely missed the first 5 minutes of the movie.

Trigger Point stars Barry Pepper as a former assassin now living the life of a hermit in a small northeastern town. Now known as Nick, the former assassin’s life now consists of eating the same meal at the same small town diner and buying books at the bookstore across the street. Instead of using his elite skills to hunt and kill baddies, Nick spends his days researching videogames and giving cheat codes to the mom of a local teenager who is struggling with his favorite game.

Of course, this idyllic, hermetic existence is about to be upended. Nick’s former associates are searching for him. The daughter of Nick’s former friend, Elias played by Colm Feore, has been kidnapped by the same big bad that was responsible for torturing Nick into giving away the identities of his ex-associates. This big bad is why Nick is no longer an assassin and instead drinks tea and reads all day.

Feore arrives in Nick’s small town and talks him into helping get his daughter back. Along the way, Nick will unravel the secrets that led to him losing everything. Whether those secrets and twists and backstabbings, involve Feore’s well dressed fellow assassin, you will need to watch the movie to find out. Naturally, no one in Trigger Point is to be trusted, aside from the delightful waitress, Janice (Nazneen Contractor), at Nick’s favorite diner, she’s a charmer and the best character in the whole movie.

There is nothing particularly wrong with Trigger Point. It’s made with enough polish not to be annoying. Barry Pepper isn’t the most charismatic actor in the world but he’s an efficient actor, capable of holding the screen while action is occurring. Colm Feore is a terrific supporting player, a utility man who can be plugged into any role. That he makes a rather obvious villain doesn’t dim the relish he brings to any role, including this one.

The biggest issue with Trigger Point is how cut and paste it is from a dozen other movies about assassins with shady pasts working for hidden government entities. The vague allusions to assassinations and government plots and working outside the law are rote, predictable and not particularly compelling. It’s all shot well enough and the pacing of the action is fine but who cares? There is no innovation, there is nothing new and aside from Nazneen Contractor’s charming moments, Trigger Point is too familiar and conventional to be interesting.

Trigger Point was directed by television veteran Brad Turner who has experience on shows like Homeland and Kiefer Sutherland’s 24. Turner brings a television director’s eye to Trigger Point and the result gives the film an episodic quality that translates all the way to the ending which feels like it is setting up a universe for a television show and the next series of episodes. Were Trigger Point a TV show, I probably would not watch it but it might be more at home in a medium where it could develop and enrich these characters and the universe they are in.

Nazneen Contractor is delightful and underutilized in Trigger Point

At the very least, let’s get Nazneen Contractor her own show, she’s a delight.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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