‘Breaking Point’

Although the crime thriller “Breaking Point” is no more original than its overused title, director Jeff Celentano keeps things moving at a decent clip and squeezes a fair amount of tension from Vincent Campanella’s workaday script. It’s also a good-looking film, fluidly shot by Emmanuel Vouniozos, which makes vivid use of its New York-area locations.

Tom Berenger stars as Steven Luisi, a criminal defense lawyer haunted by the death of his wife and daughter, who takes on a prominent murder case only to become a fall guy in a twisty plot involving a dastardly assistant D.A. (Armand Assante), a vicious gang leader (Busta Rhymes) and a missing baby.

Luisi’s past drug addiction and bumpy reputation make him suitable for framing, but as he pushes through the case, with the help of his beautiful lawyer friend (Musetta Vander) and a conflicted ex-football-player-turned-gangster (Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones), he keeps that ever-reliable movie goal of redemption in his sights.

Unfortunately, by spreading around the story “Crash” style, Campanella doesn’t sufficiently explore Luisi’s complex character, relying on flashbacks, exposition and Berenger’s best efforts to flesh out the potentially intriguing central role.

Still, as a diverting way to blow 90 minutes, you could do far worse than this gritty, sometimes nasty, mostly absorbing potboiler.

-- Gary Goldstein “Breaking Point.” MPAA rating: R for strong language, violence, some drug use and brief nudity. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Laemmle’s Fallbrook 7, West Hills; Culver Plaza Theatre, Culver City.

Undercover and in the Troubles

Terrific performances and an array of kinetic action scenes help distinguish “Fifty Dead Men Walking” from the seemingly endless stream of films about Northern Ireland’s infamous era of sectarian violence known as the Troubles.

Writer-director Kari Skogland’s script was inspired by the book by Martin McGartland and Nicholas Davies about McGartland’s true-life experiences as a brash young Irish hustler (played here by Jim Sturgess) recruited by British intelligence to infiltrate the IRA. Though Skogland has crafted an emotionally charged portrait, the film, set mostly in late-1980s Belfast, becomes hamstrung by an overly dense, at times confusing presentation of its many events and players.

The movie’s real strength lies in McGartland’s intimate if increasingly knotty relationships with his paternal British boss, Special Branch handler Fergus (Ben Kingsley); his spry girlfriend, Lara (Natalie Press), with whom he has two children; and his best mate, Sean (Kevin Zegers, in an excellent transformation), an IRA member whose fraternal trust McGartland is forced to betray. Sturgess (“Across the Universe,” “21”) performs memorably with all of his costars, which also include Rose McGowan as a seductive IRA intelligence head and Tom Collins as an IRA leader.

As for the perhaps familiar title, it refers to the number of IRA-targeted lives McGartland is credited with saving through his intrepid efforts.

-- Gary Goldstein “Fifty Dead Men Walking.” MPAA rating: R for strong brutal violence and torture, language and some sexuality. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes. At Laemmle’s Music Hall, Beverly Hills.

Comedy can’t get a parking spot

The comedy “The Strip” carries a provocative title until you realize it refers to a mall type or possibly the kind of power source sold at the meagerly visited electronics store where the movie’s sad-sack retail drones work.

There’s certainly no energy surge in writer-director Jameel Khan’s effort, which is a collection of lazy, look-who’s-stupid-or-pathetic vignettes so loosely assembled and laugh-deficient they play as if you’re thumbing through a sketch reject pile. Though Khan can be commended somewhat for eschewing overly crude humor in favor of smaller-scale gags at the expense of his immature male characters -- the team-building manager with the faltering marriage (Dave Foley), the obnoxious sales king (Cory Christmas), the dopey guy who lives in his van (Billy Aaron Brown) -- his poorly edited and overscored bits don’t add up to much.

By the time we’re supposed to feel something hopeful for Avi (Federico Dordei), the sweetly upbeat Pakistani immigrant with impending nuptials, or Kyle (Rodney Scott), the college boy being pushed into management by his mean owner dad, “The Strip” has been all too effective in conveying the air of a place where the only response to what it’s offering is, “No, thanks, just looking.”

-- Robert Abele “The Strip.” MPAA rating: PG-13 for sexual references. Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

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