04/18/10 - Point Break

Point Break (1991, 120 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102685/

My roommate selected this film. Directed by the 2010 Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow I wanted to see if I could find any similarities (in style) between this and The Hurt Locker. Besides that, it seemed to me to be one of those stereotypical 1990s movies that I'd never checked out.

The film stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, a new FBI agent who goes undercover to see if a group of surfers are actually an infamous group of bank robbers. It turns out that they are and they are led by Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). For the romantic element of the story, Utah falls for Tyler (Lori Petty), a friend of Bodhi's. Meanwhile, Pappas (Gary Busey) serves as Utah's partner in the investigation.

The tagline for Point Break is "100% Pure Adrenaline" and I cannot disagree one bit. The film would be lying if that number was anything less than 100. Point Break is action packed and crazy fun to watch. There's no questioning that - not for a second. There's quite a few action scenes that are all well done and interesting. But they're all different, too. There's a surfing action scene, a bank robbing action scene, a chase scene starting in cars and then evolving to on foot and finally some skydiving at the end. There's action at every turn and it's well paced and fun action. In this, I did see aspects of The Hurt Locker. At one noticeable point in The Hurt Locker I commented how I felt the film lost believability and went for a more adrenaline feel. I felt that much more in this film. For instance, Utah has a bum knee and frequently this poses a problem to him. But what I didn't like was that one time he jumps and lands on it, essentially ending the foot chase. However, in the next scene he handles himself on it pretty well for the most part. And a few scenes later he seems completely healed from his fall. This somewhat took me out of the movie at how unbelievable it was. I realize that the tagline is "100% Pure Adrenaline" and if the film had stayed with him having the wrecked knee the action scenes would be noticeably weaker. But still it irked me. If I had been able to ignore these facts, the action of the film would be some of the best I've seen. Each scene taken by themselves seems incredibly realistic so that's a plus.

My next complaint is with Swayze. Keanu serves as a good enough main lead. I'm not going to criticize Keanu's acting. I mean, it's not the greatest but it's good enough for a fun movie like this that I didn't care when he gave the occasional flat delivery. But Swayze is another story. Well, not really Swayze's acting because that's fine. Rather, Swayze as the bad guy. He's just not convincing. He's too likable to be bad. Sure he robs banks with a group of guys and sure he's conniving and manipulative of Utah when he finds out he's an FBI agent but I really feel like this is natural given his character. All I'm saying is that he wasn't a convincing villain because he's just too easy going or whatever to be hated. I think this is just an extension of Patrick Swayze as a person though if that makes any sense.

Overall, I gave this film a 6/10. The adrenaline was sure there. Sometimes the 100% guarantee knocked out the realism a bit too much for me. Mostly I forgave this in the action scenes but the knee business bothered me more. On the whole, I'm glad I checked it out. Plus, the ending was pretty cool with the monstrous waves just begging for Bodhi to come surf.