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France has emerged as one of the leading exporters of action cinema over the past decade, thanks in part to the work of writer, producer and director Luc Besson. His brand of quick, dirty, violent action has become wildly successful, with its wide appeal likely culminating in 2009, with the release of the Liam Neeson-starring Taken.

And while Besson isn’t involved in Point Blank (or A Bout Portant, as it’s known in its native tongue), his influence can be felt all over the picture. From the way it’s shot and edited to its storyline and structure, this is very much what you’d expect from a French action film. However, it stands apart from much of its ilk due to the fact that director Fred Cavayé actually manages to entertain and thrill for a large majority of its running time.

You know you’re in for a ride of a film when the first shot is a bloody man busting through a steel door, accompanied by the jump-inducing sound of said door crashing against a wall. We follow him as he’s chased by two armed men, and their confrontation comes to a head in a tunnel where the pursued is hit by a speeding bike.

We then get scenes of male nurse Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) working in a hospital, who we soon learn is a soon-to-be father, as his wife, Nadia (Elena Anaya) is six weeks away from giving birth to their daughter. One day, he sees someone fleeing a ward, as it turns out he’s just cut a cord on a patient’s respirator. It turns out this patient is none other than who we saw in the opening scene, who’s managed to live through his injuries and is saved by Samuel.

Later, he and his wife are attacked in their home, and when he awakens he discovers that she’s been kidnapped. His only way of getting her back is to deliver the patient, named Sartet (Roschdy Zem) to the men on the phone, which he then attempts to do. Needless to say, things get a little bloody from there.

What follows from that point is an action movie of a high order; in equal parts thrilling and funny (with some earned emotion thrown in), Point Blank is one of the best entries into the genre that I’ve seen over the past few years. While the plot is, as expected, fairly absurd and predictable, the entertaining way in which it’s told is more than enough to compensate for this problem. After seeing so many American action movies fail to deliver the expected thrills (such as The Mechanic or The Expendables), it’s nice to know that other countries can still do it right.

For one thing, this avoids the irritating path many recent action films have taken, which is the method of shooting sequences up close and with quick cuts. While not taking things as far as something like Oldboy, the scenes here are choreographed and directed appropriately, so that audience members never have any doubt as to who is where and what they’re doing in a shot. This contributes to its proper functioning as an overall piece; the stakes feel legitimate here, because, you know, they’re going to kill his pregnant wife!

Okay, it’s obvious from the start that he’ll save her by the movie’s conclusion, but the amount of danger he gets put in along the way distracts from this apparent plot point. The script by Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans is smart enough to keep the lead and Sartet together for most of the running time. This matters, because much of the danger the former encounters comes from the latter’s past actions, making most of it click. The men who want to kill Sartet are very intent on doing so, and don’t care about who gets in their way. Having them come off as believable villains is important, and while I wasn’t always feeling the danger of our antagonists (their plan is really kind of unnecessary in the long run), Gerard Lanvin, who plays the lead baddie, pulls off his character with ease.

Walking out of Point Blank, I found myself thrilled in a way that few action movies over the past few years have managed to make me feel. While it’s certainly not perfect – with a slightly awkward epilogue being the biggest offender – it delivers more than you’d expect from just another European action film. This is one that many fans of this type of movie will end up appreciating, and even mass audiences should be happy with what’s put on display here.

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Tags: Fred Cavaye, Point Blank, Tribeca 2011