Customer Reviews

Point Break: The Pure Adrenaline Edition

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Before "Speed", before "The Matrix" or any of a half dozen other memorable films that Keanu Reeves has been in, there was "Point Break". For sheer action, adrenaline, and quick thrills, nothing compares to this cops and robber movie set in the surfer sub culture of southern California. Keanu Reeves plays a young FBI recruit (Johnny Utah) on his first assignment, and lands in the middle of a bank robbery mystery that has been unraveling for several years. A group calling themselves the Ex-Presidents, and wearing outlanding disguises as Ron Reagan, Dick Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson, have successfully been looting area banks, so far without shooting or killing anyone. Reeves' older partner, played masterfully here by Gary Busey, confides to Keanu that he believes the bank robbers are surfers, who hit banks to support their wandering lifestyles, following the waves.

Suddenly the stage is set for a masterful cat and mouse game between Busey and Reeves on the one hand, and a group of surfers led by Patrick Swayze, on the other. The movie has everything, from gloriously photographed scenes of surfing to outrageous action sequences which are choreographed so memorably that they become the coda for the movie. There are several exceptional chase scenes, including one that is run by foot through yards, houses, and streets. In the end, it is a powerful allegory regarding the meaning of contemporary life and the rules we all try to live by, but in the meantime it is also a hell of an entertaining ride on the rollercoaster that Reeves and Busey have to ride in pursuit of the Ex-Presidents! "Surfers rule, I swear to God". Hahaha. Inside joke that you'll understand after viewing the film. Enjoy!

C'mon! Some of you dudes are, like, taking this flick waaaay to seriously, man. This is a great movie to put in if your bored or high and nothing's on tv or if your with some friends and you don't feel like going out. Instead you get a six pack, a pizza, turn the lights off and pop this movie in. The absolute most enjoyable thing about this movie is its complete indefensibility. How can anyone possibly defend a movie in which no five straight minutes are the slightest bit believable. But that's the genius of it. At every even slightly crucial point in the movie, the plot demands that FBI Special Agent Johnny Utah (Reeves) make the stupidest decisions, the most incompetent blunders and display the most irresponsible and morally wrong behavior humanly possible in a member of law enforcement. If he wises up at all, he figures out who the robbers are and sends about two dozen black and whites over to their home and the movie's over in about a half hour. Pretty anticlimatic end, huh? Rather, its about three quarters the way through the movie that the obvious occurs to him. Second in his class at Quantico...riiiight. Instead, we get two hours of surfing, skydiving, bank robbing, stunts, fistfights, gunfights, hot babes, one-liners and chases. Personally, I prefer all the running around to the realistic ending. Don't you?

..."The Fast and the Furious" did this story a lot better.

Maybe it's just the fact, you know, I can't take Keanu Reeves serious for one second. Even in the first "Matrix" (which I liked) when he looks at his fist and says, "I know Kung Fu!" I have to laugh. It's because his voice on permanent skater-dude mode! If they had made ten more "Bill and Ted" movies he would have been made for life.

Now you might think, "But this is a surfer movie! His accent makes his character accurate!" Yes it would...if his character was SMART. Let's take a look at the record for our hero: bundles a raid, gets his partner killed, lets his girlfriend get kidnapped, lets fellow officers and agents get killed, and - to top it all off - spends the whole movie with Patrick Swayze gang's and doesn't figure out until an hour and a half in that it's THEM robbing the banks! It wouldn't have bugged me so much except the writer's act like it's such a big secret. "Tee hee! They'll never guess this! I better spend a lot more scenes developing the relationship between Keanu's and Patrick's characters to make sure there's no possible way at all that Swayze could be the bank robber!"

And then of course there's the classic hero-villain honor thing. You know, the whole, "Oh, even though you tried to kill me on numerous occassions, tried to kill my girlfriend, shot my partner in cold blood, killed many other innocent people, and generally broke a lot of federal laws...I'm going to treat you like my best buddy."

Yeah. Right. Hand me by barfo-bag, please.

Every scene in this movie is unintentionally hilarious. Its a surfing movie that is really more like a parody of surfing. The patched together wave shots are comic gold to anyone who notices, the action is cheesy, Keanu Reeves serves up a "Bill and Ted try to act serious" performance, Swayze's character is such a stereotype its a joke, and Gary Busey is every bit as crazy as he is in real life. The chase scene in particular had me rolling. Utah actually gets a DOG thrown at him!?!

The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is the chick who plays Utah's love interest. for some reason she just gets on my nerves.

This movie is great, provided you don't take it seriously.

This is probably the greatest movie of all time. Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze face off with such intensity, charisma, and chemistry that you'd think that these roles were written for them eons ago by gods up on Mt. Olympus. Well, dude, they were.

Although Point Break is fascinating on many levels, it works extremely well as a metaphor for the Cold War. Bodhi and his gang represent the Soviet Union, who threaten the United States (Johnny Utah) with their liberating ideology of robbing banks to finance an endless summer. As a parallel to Marxist revolution as it generally existed in the Third World, Bodhi's anti-establishment surf rhetoric was indeed backed up by force--his goon Rosie represents the Red Army, or the KGB or something.

Johnny Utah is quite effective as the United States, going to any extreme (learning to surf, etc.) in order to crush his enemy. Interestingly enough, however, Johnny gets a little bit "too deep" with Bodhi's gang, and for awhile mirrors the Carter administration's policy of peaceful coexistence with socialist sattelites (Nicaragua). This doesn't last for long, however, when Gary Busey's Pappas (Ronald Reagan) convinces Johnny that he needs to bust the ex-presidents.

Tyler (Lori Petty) plays the unfortunate role of the victimized Third World. The two superpowers, Bodhi and Johnny, are forced to use her as a "proxy battlefield" in order to avoid the mutually assured destruction that would certainly happen if they met head on.

In the end, the overwhelming force of Utah's defense spending (the FBI budget vs. Bodhi's crumbling Marxist/Bank Robbery economy) forces the ex-presidents to break up, and Bodhi dies a death that is infinitely more poetic and beautiful than that of the USSR. Thank You.

Kathryn Bigelow's adrenaline-fuelled thriller "Point Break" (1991) - co-produced by James Cameron - combines Californian mysticism with pulse-pounding action set-pieces and toplines the iconic figure of Keanu Reeves (fetishized here by Don Peterman's expansive cinematography) as an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates a group of itinerant surfers (led by Patrick Swayze) responsible for a series of daring bank raids. Despite the film's relentless macho swagger, "Point Break" aims for something more profound than your average summer blockbuster and is distinguished by some extraordinary visual conceits: From the glorious surfing scenes to the action highlights (most notably, Reeves' heart-stopping pursuit of a fleeing bank raider through a suburban landscape) to a show-stopping sky-dive sequence which lifts the film onto another plane altogether, far removed from the typical excesses of American commercial cinema.

Lori Petty ("Tank Girl") provides the nominal love interest - and very good she is, too - but W. Peter Iliff's script focuses almost exclusively on the ambiguous relationship between 'good guy' Reeves and 'villain' Swayze, drawing them together in adversity, while the supporting cast is rounded out by the likes of Gary Busey ("The Buddy Holly Story"), John C. McGinley, James LeGros ("Drugstore Cowboy"), and experienced surfers John Philbin ("North Shore") and Bojesse Christopher (co-writer and director of "Out in Fifty" [1999]), both exquisitely beautiful. However, Reeves dominates the movie with typical economy and grace, balancing his trademark 'cool dude' persona against the heavier dramatic requirements of his role as a dedicated FBI agent. The narrative stumbles badly toward the end (Swayze's abrupt deviation from established procedure during one of the climactic sequences is totally inexplicable, and the subsequent body count would almost certainly have prompted the FBI to dismiss Reeves from the service long before his final showdown with Swayze), but the film survives primarily as a unique combination of surfing, action and ultra-sexy young actors. Whether by accident or design, "Point Break" has 'cult movie' written all over it.

Not quite the collector's edition that some viewers might have been expecting, 20th Century Fox's region 1 DVD - which runs 121m 56s - reproduces the wide Super 35 frame in letterbox format (2.35:1), anamorphically enhanced. Picture quality is grainy in places, but generally OK. Subtitles and captions are provided, along with three audio options - 4.1 and 2.0 Dolby and 5.1 DTS, all of which are reasonably aggressive, though not quite as challenging as the 70mm version (blown-up from 35mm) which played theatrically during the film's premiere engagements. There's a number of trailers and an extremely brief (3m 30s) 'making of' featurette, and nothing more.

This one skims along wihtout missing a beat, happily aware of its own implausibilities. Possessing cliches in spades, "Point Break" somehow manages to walk a very precarious line--surviving, even thriving, in open defiance of its own plot holes and Keanu Reeves. Reeves takes a lot of heat for his acting ability (or lack thereof), but movies like "Point Break" prove that in the right circumstances, he can excel. No heavy thought required here--Reeves is right (dare I say perfect?) for the role of almost emotionally blank FBI cowboy Johnny Utah, while Gary Busey as his crusty partner stereotype (this guy in the FBI? Yeah, right!) also fits right in. "Point Break" is an engine disguised as a film, but unlike the computer-generated excesses of today, it actually delivers the consistent, almost effortless adrenaline rush that action movies should without numbing you with pyrotechnics and digital deception. One of the last really good action movies Hollywood produced.

Came in great time and the DVD was the quality promised thanks so much

Susanne Oosting

This awesome action movie is the original 'Fast and the Furious' where surfers with souls are used instead of expensive cars and special effects. Keanu Reeves is perfect for the role as Johnny Utah,the cocky "quarterback punk" fbi agent who has to infiltrate the deep roots of a clan of surfers who rob banks. Garey Busey is a gem as the Utah's crazy partner, Angelo, and Patrick Swayze makes a perfect anti-villain, Bodi.

The action is never-ending, the surfing scenes are amazing (even if Keanu learns how to surf a bit too quickly) and then there's that great chemistry between Swayze and Reeves..two action junkies from completely different backgrounds but that same carnal desire for madness! This film is must for anyone who thinks Vin Diesel is a good anarchist with a spiritual side.. wait 'til you meet Bodi!

I first came accross this movie a few years ago on T.V. and even the bastardizing T.V. will usually do to a movie, I still enjoyed the bit of it I saw. This is also true for the movie "Lock Up." Anyways, I decieded to rent the movie, and was suprised by how good it was. Most movie "critics" shun Keanu Reeves's acting, and in a way, I kind of see why they see it that way, but at the same time I think they need not compare it to shakespere either. Most "critics" have it in for Keanu I think because of Bill and Ted. Which if you get past the obvious flaws, and enjoy the movie for what it is, you don't notice any of the so-called bad acting. Obviously, they are the only one's that think so, because the only votes that matter are the votes in the form of ticket sales, and quite frankly Keanu is on the upper escelon of this right along with Schwarzenegger,Stallone,Willis, and Travolta. And like Bill and Ted, if you just take the movie for what it is,it is a great movie. You really don't even have to try hard as Reeves once again makes a memorable character, and with Patrick Swayze in one of his best roles non-"chick-flick" that I have seen him in. Swayze is a very "real" and textured character as Bodhi. Basically the story is about Keanu Reaves's character Johnny Utah, who is a FBI agent getting his first assignment to track down the notorious Bank robbers, "The Ex-Presidents" who rob banks every summer-time and have never been caught. Along with Utah Gary Busey is Angelo,Utah's veteren FBI partner who is very big on doing things the "Old School" way. Together Angelo and Utah discover that the Ex-Presidents are probably surfers and figure out what "break" they surf by getting samples and doing anylasis.
Utah poses as a fellow surfer and meets what will be his love interest in the movie. Lori Petty plays Utah's love interest Tyler and initially teaches him how to surf, and also gives info on the othe surfers in which his attention is directed for the first time to Bodhi. Once Utah kind of gets the hang of surfing He and Angelo try to seek out who they think are the Ex-Presidents. They come accross this gang of Surfers led by Red Hot Chili Pepper,Anthony Kiedus, who have criminal records and when confronted by these surfers, Bodhi steps in and Helps Utah. Bodi then realizes that he is Johhny Utah QB from Ohio State. He then asks Utah to play some football with he and his fellow surfers. Once Bodhi sees Utah's exreme side while playing football, he kind of lets Utah into his gang. Bodhi tells Utah about the spiritual side to surfing and Utah gets taken in by this and later this would affect his ability to catch Bodhi chasing him after a bank robbery. Once Bodhi realizes that Utah is an FBI agent, he intends to get even by forcing him to be apart of a bank heist. However the heist goes horribly wrong when Bodhi breaks his own rule and stays in the bank too long causing his little brother's death. Eventually Angelo and Utah track down Bodhi on an Airstrip trying to flee the country and this is when Angelo gets shot and killed. Bodhi gets away but not for long as Utah remembers that Bodhi would be going to Australia to catch some in human Monster wave. As Utah apprehends Bodhi, Bodhi asks Utah for only one thing, to let him ride one last time. Utah agrees and Bodhi rides and fades into the wave dying in the process. By the end you learn some things and these messages really make you think. Who is really right, Did Bodhi have a point? I thought about the meaning long after the movie was over and soon bought the DVD and watched it many times since. If you have ever surfed, skidived or just think that your 9-5 job sucks and would like a movie either to relate to or give you soming to think about, this movie does that. Really give it a chance and think about what the meanings are and I'll bet you will like this movie as much as I have.