Point Break (1991) starring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley, James LeGros, John Philbin, Daniel Beer, Chris Pedersen, Vincent Klyn directed by Kathryn Bigelow Movie Review

Point Break (1991)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Patrick Swayze as Bodhi in Point Break

Reeves and Swayze get a little Petty

Although I absolutely love "Point Break", I can honestly say it is not for the acting or the storyline, maybe I've subconsciously wanted to be a righteous surf dude. Anyway, the basic appeal of "Point Break" comes in two forms; firstly there is the extreme sports side of the movie with the surfing and skydiving. Then the second element, which goes hand in hand with the extreme sports, is the adrenalin packed action and police chases. Of course, not wanting to sound sexist it stars Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves as eye candy for the women and Lori Petty for the men.

Rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves - Parenthood) is assigned to investigate a string of bank robberies by a gang calling themselves the Ex-Presidents. With very little to go on Utah's only lead comes from his partner Pappas (Gary Busey - Lethal Weapon) who believes that the Ex-Presidents are a gang of surfers, lead by charismatic adrenaline junkie Bodhi (Patrick Swayze - Ghost). Posing undercover as a surfer, Utah is slowly accepted in to Bodhi's gang, enticed by his energy and craziness. As Utah's investigation goes deeper, he must ultimately choose between friendship and duty.

Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in Point Break

The storyline to "Point Break" itself is nothing new, and has been used in a whole variety of movies and genres such as "The Fast & The Furious". The basis of it goes, an undercover agent becomes emotionally attached to the people he is attempting to bring to justice. In reality the plot, although totally predictable, works well as the basis for all the adrenalin packed scenes, and becomes less important as the movie progresses.

The action scenes are pretty effective with a mixture of adrenalin pumping extreme sports sequences, such as the surfing and skydiving, as well as the chase scenes there is plenty going on to keep you interested. "Point Break" is really a typical 90's action movie and is worth watching for all the action and explosions, which occasionally indulge in a little bit of comedy as well

In the lead role of Johnny Utah is Keanu Reeves and quite annoyingly sounds exactly like his character of Ted Logan from the "Bill & Ted" movies. This is by no means his best performance, but he still manages to provide enough of a performance to keep you entertained. On the same note, you have Patrick Swayze as the blond, shaggy haired, surf god Bodhi. Just like Reeves, this is by no means his best performance and at times is totally unconvincing, but still manages to entertain you without resorting to a major dance scene. What is reasonably good about "Point Break", and in particular the lead characters, is that it provides a bit of history to them, giving the characters a bit of depth and reasoning behind their actions.

The two other notable names to appear in the movie are Gary Busey and Lori Petty, and follow along the same lines of the lead stars, with reasonable but basically unmemorable performances.

"Point Break" is directed by Kathryn Bigelow who had previously directed "Blue Steel" and more recently "The Hurt Locker". Like the stars of the movie, I feel she has done a distinctly average job, nothing really good but nothing really bad either. What she has done is to provide 2 hours of reasonably paced, adrenalin packed entertainment.

What this all boils down to is that although "Point Break" is a distinctly average movie, compared to modern action flicks, I still enjoy it no matter how many times I have watched it. This is all down to the action sequences, which although not the most explosive are reasonably realistic. Yes, after 15 years it has become very dated and I doubt it would find many fans from a current young audience, but still holds the same charm as it did when it was first released. Of course with the main stars being Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, it will always have some appeal to their die hard fans, but would only really recommend this to fans of early 90s action flicks.


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