This is the review with hilarious spoilers. This is the movie where Keanu Reeves gets his butt kicked. A lot. As a matter of fact, at least 6 times he fails in a fight, chase, or action scene. This is the movie where the good guys fail at everything and the bad guys succeed in almost every possible way---whether it is by outsmarting the good guys or because the good guys are idiots. This is the action flick that proves you don't need special effects, but you do need someone in the background keeping tally of who is beating who in the film ("Um, Mrs. Bigelow, why is Keanu Reeves getting beat down by a naked woman?")
Point Break is one of the signature action flicks of the 90s. Why you ask? Because a bunch of violent hippie-like surfers (that love extreme sports) are robbing banks around California and an ex-football player-turned cop must stop them by becoming one of them. Yep, this plot sounds like it's going somewhere. The main character's name is Johnny Utah. Come on now, any movie with a main character that cool of a name is bound to be a hell of a good time, right? Then we have Patrick Swayze as one of the "surfer hippies" (awesome performance) and the always-reliable Gary Busey as the partner. This has all the makings of an action classic, and the opening credits just started.
The script was clever, and was something very different in the realm of action flicks. This movie was W. Peter Iliff''s best script and it's a shame after Patriot Games he didn't dwell more into the genre. There was only one issue with the script. No, it's not the dialogue, no it's not the pacing, but it's the extremely weak and pathetic main character. Our main character loses so many fights, we stop rooting for him halfway because we are sure the end result would be the same----failure. He doesn't listen, he's not very smart, he's obviously not very strong, and he mellows down to a pathetic wanna-be hero that chases the main villain like a lost puppy. There can be cases of good movies where the villains are just so much smarter than the heroes (The Dark Knight anyone?), but there are some extreme cases in which you wonder why the members of the police force still have their job based off their decision-making.
Keanu Reeves in the movie almost loses a fight against surfers, and does indeed lose against a naked woman, against bank robbers, against one guy (multiple times), against a man on fire, against gravity, and couldn't even succeed in a single chase. And he was a football player. Did I already say he lost to a female taking a shower? I did? I'll say it again anyway. Gary Busey should have ditched this guy halfway through the production, but then we the audience would definitely have known by then that Mr. Utah just wasn't going to win at anything. Unfortunately, he stuck around, giving Utah hope. Oops.
Luckily we have great direction from Kathryn Bigelow and superb stuntwork. Bigelow must have been against special effects, because this entire movie is stuntwork and pyrotechnics-driven, as we see skydiving, surfing, crazy stunts, and one of the best on-foot chases in the history of cinema----despite it ending weakly. Bigelow is one of the more underrated directors out there, as she avoids pulling punches and avoids the clichés throughout the entire production. She also crafts great performances from Busey, Swayze, and also John C. McGinley. As for Keanu Reeves, he does a decent job, but his character prevents him from delivering anything memorable. Mr. Utah is a law enforcement joke.
Bottom Line: Point Break is a swell action flick, as long as you can get past Keanu getting smacked around constantly, as he loses fights, loses arguments, constantly loses control of the situation at hand, and constantly fails in achieving his goal. It was laughable the amount of times he screws up, and the amount of times his peers screwed up. No wonder the bank robbers were having no problems taking over the city banks. Despite this fact, the movie is fun, furious, raw, and one of the signature action flicks of the 1990s.
P.S. Keanu Reeves gets beat up by a naked woman. Just wanted to say that one more time.
Point Break is one of the signature action flicks of the 90s. Why you ask? Because a bunch of violent hippie-like surfers (that love extreme sports) are robbing banks around California and an ex-football player-turned cop must stop them by becoming one of them. Yep, this plot sounds like it's going somewhere. The main character's name is Johnny Utah. Come on now, any movie with a main character that cool of a name is bound to be a hell of a good time, right? Then we have Patrick Swayze as one of the "surfer hippies" (awesome performance) and the always-reliable Gary Busey as the partner. This has all the makings of an action classic, and the opening credits just started.
The script was clever, and was something very different in the realm of action flicks. This movie was W. Peter Iliff''s best script and it's a shame after Patriot Games he didn't dwell more into the genre. There was only one issue with the script. No, it's not the dialogue, no it's not the pacing, but it's the extremely weak and pathetic main character. Our main character loses so many fights, we stop rooting for him halfway because we are sure the end result would be the same----failure. He doesn't listen, he's not very smart, he's obviously not very strong, and he mellows down to a pathetic wanna-be hero that chases the main villain like a lost puppy. There can be cases of good movies where the villains are just so much smarter than the heroes (The Dark Knight anyone?), but there are some extreme cases in which you wonder why the members of the police force still have their job based off their decision-making.
Keanu Reeves in the movie almost loses a fight against surfers, and does indeed lose against a naked woman, against bank robbers, against one guy (multiple times), against a man on fire, against gravity, and couldn't even succeed in a single chase. And he was a football player. Did I already say he lost to a female taking a shower? I did? I'll say it again anyway. Gary Busey should have ditched this guy halfway through the production, but then we the audience would definitely have known by then that Mr. Utah just wasn't going to win at anything. Unfortunately, he stuck around, giving Utah hope. Oops.
Luckily we have great direction from Kathryn Bigelow and superb stuntwork. Bigelow must have been against special effects, because this entire movie is stuntwork and pyrotechnics-driven, as we see skydiving, surfing, crazy stunts, and one of the best on-foot chases in the history of cinema----despite it ending weakly. Bigelow is one of the more underrated directors out there, as she avoids pulling punches and avoids the clichés throughout the entire production. She also crafts great performances from Busey, Swayze, and also John C. McGinley. As for Keanu Reeves, he does a decent job, but his character prevents him from delivering anything memorable. Mr. Utah is a law enforcement joke.
Bottom Line: Point Break is a swell action flick, as long as you can get past Keanu getting smacked around constantly, as he loses fights, loses arguments, constantly loses control of the situation at hand, and constantly fails in achieving his goal. It was laughable the amount of times he screws up, and the amount of times his peers screwed up. No wonder the bank robbers were having no problems taking over the city banks. Despite this fact, the movie is fun, furious, raw, and one of the signature action flicks of the 1990s.
P.S. Keanu Reeves gets beat up by a naked woman. Just wanted to say that one more time.