Review of Point Break (2015) by Christian G — 09 Jul 2012

All I knew of Point Break before watching this was the scene where Keanu Reeves lays on his back and empties his gun into the sky so it's safe to say I didn't know much.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, 18 years before her Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker and set amongst the Californian surfing scene, Point Break follows Keanu Reeve's jock FBI agent Johnny Utah as he hunts down a group of surfer types responsible for a string of bank robberies. Patrick Swayze plays adrenaline junkie surfer Bodhi, part of the group Reeve's attempts to infiltrate.

The plot may be slightly pie in the sky, but Bigelow manages to deliver a non-stop testosterone-laden ride throughout, be it with well-shot surfing scenes, chases, shoot-outs or the heart in mouth skydiving action sequences.

Reeves over-acts as ever, but this time around it doesn't feel too ridiculous as it almost seems a natural fit as part of the humourous cop buddy relationship so typical of police films of this era. Gary Busey is great as the joker to Reeve's largely straight character. John C. McGinley plays the typically over-wrought and angry police chief in a character that people will recognise as remarkably similar to Dr. Cox in Scrubs.

A pre-cursor to funny cop action flicks like Bad Boys, Point Break is a simple but enjoyable no-brainer action film.