Point Break (2015) Review!!!

Synopsis – A young FBI agent infiltrates an extraordinary team of extreme sports athletes he suspects of masterminding a string of unprecedented, sophisticated corporate heists. “Point Break” is inspired by the classic 1991 hit.

My Take – Honestly, the Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) directed 1991 cult classic starring Patrick Swayze & Keanu Reeves was not a good movie. But thanks to enjoyable action sequences, the dynamic chemistry between the leads & the amount of hamming done by Keanu Reeves (“I am a FBI agent”, remember that?), the film had been appreciated for being what it was – an dumb popcorn film which was so bad it became enjoyable. But this remake does not carry any form of wonderment which made the original so popular. There are ideas that could have been utilized more, but it’s too burdened by both action movie cliches and the fact that it is being Point Break. It’s not a good undercover cop thriller, nor a good bromantic film. And you better off watching an actual stunt show, which at least doesn’t make you get through to its drab expositions and the fact that it’s more real and not embellished by any special effects. Then again, the effects aren’t bad, but that’s not the point. You may give it credit for heightening something from the original, but it doesn’t do that well either. The fact how unnatural the homages are made for this remake makes it even more frustrating to watch. The biggest change from Kathryn Bigelows modern-classic-original however is the fact that this version doesn’t make me care about the characters at all! It borrows a few iconic scenes (most prominently the “angrily shooting into the air”-scene and the ending, well sort of) and it makes no excuse whatsoever about cramming these images into the film. It tries SO hard to make audiences go ‘Ooo, did you see what they did there! That is from the original that is!’, but as this film is so infuriatingly inferior (say that quickly five times) it only makes me a little bit angry, that it didn’t even have the guts to stand on its own two legs as a modern day action movie. Like the new Star Wars: Episode VII, this Point Break sticks to the old formula — using some of the same characters and ideas, but little of the humor, humanity or emotional involvement of the original.

The story follows The plot has a similar arc to the original — an FBI cadet named Johnny (Luke Bracey) who in order to prove his theory to his superiors, must infiltrates a tight-knit group of extreme sports athletes led by Bodhi (Édgar Ramírez) on a hunch that they’re responsible for a series of daring, global, public robberies. This makes sense, because Johnny is himself a former extreme sports athlete who quit that world after an agonizing personal tragedy to join an FBI. The plot then dives head first into uncharted territory. It’s littered with so much “save the planet” preachy acts as the writing struggles to place FBI agent in the hippie nirvana angle. The motivation is just a mess of random vague one-liners, even the on-screen characters are perplexed by it. There’s a romance subplot, but this is mainly to show the attractive Teresa Palmer as eye candy for several short scenes. What’s really worth groaning is when it’s really trying to replicate the original; not by heart or personality, but by scene. They did the Ex- Presidents, even though one of them is wearing an Obama mask despite of taking place in 2015, but they only did it once, probably because there isn’t much room for this fan service. Also the iconic scene involving Utah shooting up the air, which apparently Hot Fuzz did it better. And the epilogue is horrendously shoehorned, like it’s nothing more than a tip off the hat, because it’s not Point Break without it, I guess? However, there are some things to at least like in this film. The movie is actually better when they just show the crazy sequences instead of forcing its lackluster story. The action is kind of stunning; the fact that they’re visually more realistic to look at than most CG-fest that blockbusters tend to feed us (except for the epilogue which is too obvious.) Maybe the best among them is the rock climbing sequence where it goes from wide shots to dirty hand shots of seeing how much they’d grip. It has plethora of impressive feats, from high heaven wing-suit flying, the climb on hazardous urban streets and natural cliffs, to the surfing of gigantic waves. This is the level of stunt choreography xXx and Fast and Furious wish they had. The original’s premise wasn’t smart — an FBI agent learns to surf in order to discover the identity of a team of bank robbers operating in Los Angeles — but it was self-aware. It acknowledged its ridiculousness via every character on the side of “law and order,” while still treating the material with respect. This remake helmed by Ericson Core, cinematographer on the original Fast & Furious, can’t even manage that. It is self-serious at all times, espousing a strange Go Pro-era extreme sports spirituality that contradicts itself as it writes checks it can’t cash. Where Patrick Swayze‘s Bodhi in the 1991 film sought to set an example of resistance to society, albeit in a corny way, Edgar Ramirez‘s take on the character is laconically trying to literally save the planet with extreme sports and robberies.

Director Ericson Core, who directed the 2006 Invincible, a film which is criminally underrated, tries to fit in too many things in 113 minutes, resulting in the film to be grotesque. Luke Bracey isn’t quite bad as an action hero, but he seriously needs better material than this. Edgar Ramirez is probably just stuck with a blandly written Bodhi and really stays stick-in-the-mud with whatever he says about nature. Ray Winstone, though a good actor, is just not the memorably delightful Papas that Gary Busey established. And the movie wouldn’t be any different if Teresa Palmer‘s role was written off. I am not inherently adverse to remakes and reboots, and I am not at all a purist, I am perfectly fine with rebooting material and straying from source material if it serves the story well. What had happened here is that the studio has produced a garden variety action movie and slapped a name on it purely for the sake of brand recognition. The film exceeds expectations in the sense that this a slickly produced action film with a completely rad soundtrack. The camera work, framing and editing leave everything on the proverbial field. There isn’t anything new going on here, but it’s produced in a professional manner and the action scenes are handled with extreme care. And along comes the story, instead of our group of guys pulling bank jobs to fund adrenaline junkie lifestyles, the action men of 2015 are self aware crusaders, too cool for school, hipsters on a self imposed mission from God. Every character in this film is just annoying. The problem is that not one of the main characters are in possession of a redeemable quality and their motivations are completely nonsensical, they are all essentially unknowingly pseudo intellectuals. If this movie had been titles virtually anything else I may have enjoyed, though the unnecessarily and intentionally sanitized PG13 vibe completely disrupts any potential the film may have had in the first place. On the whole, ‘Point Break‘ is a bafflingly unsolicited remake of the 1991 cult classic of the same name, which has nothing going for except the well choreographed action sequences.