Review of Point Break (1991) by Pedro G — 01 Jun 2011

Usually I'm not the type of person who gets into viewing the work of Keanu Reeves, because he has such a mixed career as an actor, or as some people would also call him, "the guy with the surfer talk." And that kind of talk is what originated in what is one of his most famous roles in the cult action film Point Break. I never considered seeing this film anytime this year, but my views changed when I heard how much YouTube critic Chris Stuckmann enjoyed it, and that John from theFLICKpick had this film in his 20 favorites of all-time. I finally saw it today from netflix, so here we go.

Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is a former Ohio State quarterback who had a knee injury ruin his potential career in the pros. Now he has a new career as an FBI Special Agent in Los Angeles. He's partnered with the one-liner machine Special Agent Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey), and they're both tasked with hunting down a pair of bank robbers who go by the name of "The Ex-Presidents," because they all wear masks of past U.S. presidents to conceal their identities. Pappas comes up with a theory that the crooks are a group of surfers, so Johnny decides to go undercover as a surfer to infiltrate the beach and figure out who they are. Soon he meets a philosophical surfer named Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) who brings him into his crew. Unbeknownst to him, though, Utah does not realize that Bodhi and his crew are "The Ex-Presidents," so Utah must carefully choose whether to become one of them, or bring them all in.

This film is extremely notorious for people lamenting Keanu Reeves as "The actor with the surfer talk," and that's about as self-explanatory as his character is. However, he does manage to show some range and discipline in his acting ability for this time as he makes something great out of his character. Patrick Swayze has great chemistry alongside Reeves as you can definitely point out the bromance moments between these two, especially during the philosophical dialogue exchanged in certain scenes. However, my favorite performance had to be Gary Busey as Utah's crazy partner. After his motorcycle accident, it seems that over 70 % of the characters he plays in either film of tv are ones that are just plain insane and spew out one-liners at the most random moments. That phrase perfectly explains Busey's performance, because his character is much more insane that Reeve's, but he nails the much needed comedy this movie needs. Watch the meatball sub scene between him and Reeves and you'll see what I'm talking about.

This was the 4th action film that Kathryn Bigelow directed, and this is my favorite of her's second to what she did in The Hurt Locker. The action sequences she creates are some of the best I have seen from an action movie from the 90s decade, and the way she shoots the surfing sequences along with the action are just beautiful. Her style seduces you into the beauty of surfing, and it just sucks you into getting the thought that "I have to leave and try to do this myself." There are certain shots in this film that are filmed in the first-person viewpoint, especially during the classic foot-chase scene, and those angles give you that Enter The Void-style feeling that you're really there experiencing it first-hand.

Yes Point Break has numerous flaws, but the extreme sports valor, Bigelow's direction, and classic crazy Gary Busey make this film one of the most entertaining action films I have ever seen. There is no other movie out there where you're gonna see surfing and skydiving be any better than the amazing sequences that involve those two subjects than this film does.

"I'm so hungry I could eat the ass end out of a dead rhino, I should have had you get me three of these things!".