Review: Point Break
Pure high-octane drivel, the Point Break remake does what most remakes hope to avoid - it makes one long for the original. The 1991 bromance actioner, directed with flair by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves as an undercover FBI agent infiltrating Patrick Swayze's gang of bank-robbing, shaggy-haired surfers, was ridiculous fun and everyone included was self-aware of the cartoonishness of it all.
Fun is sorely missing in the remake, which deviates from the original only in its expansive embrace of all manner of extreme sport and in its positioning of its Robin Hooders as thrill-seeking eco-terrorists rather than go-with-the-flow people funding their surf and sand lifestyle. Director and cinematographer Ericson Core's take certainly does not lack for visual thrills. In fact, stripped of its non-action sequences that are really more breathers than attempts to propel the story forward or deepen the characters, one is left with a film that plays like a highlight reel for the sports on display. One would hardly be surprised if it came to light that ESPN, Red Bull and GoPro had funded the film.
An exciting freestyle motocross scene jolts the start of the film and introduces the adventurous Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey), whose recklessness in pushing the limits results in the death of his best friend. Flash forward seven years later - Johnny has put his past behind him and is focused on becoming an FBI agent. His superior (Delroy Lindo) isn't quite convinced of his potential but is swayed when Johnny's extreme sports background helps him connect the dots to a seemingly random series of daring heists. Johnny believes the criminals are extreme sport enthusiasts who are trying to achieve the Ozaki 8, eight ordeals designed to honour the forces of nature. If all eight challenges are accomplished, then nirvana is achieved.
Johnny's theory gets him assigned to the case and he and British agent Angelo Pappas (a welcome but underused Ray Winstone) situate themselves in Biarritz, where Johnny catches the attention of the daredevil gang's leader Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez) by surfing the same mega-wave that Bodhi has already claimed for himself. The sequence is not only one of the remake's many nods to the original, but is a breathtaking one in its own right. Bodhi rescues Johnny after he's pulled under the wave and it isn't very long before Johnny is part of the gang as they take on one extreme feat after another. If the motocross and big-wave surfing sequences were too ho-hum, then how about base jumping, sheer-face snowboarding, and wingsuit flying? Don't worry if your pulse races, the hippy-dippy and thoroughly nonsensical dialogue will slow it right back down.
As adrenalised and often outstanding the action sequences are, the exhilaration eventually wears off due to Core's unvarying pacing. Action scenes, like any other scene, have their own rhythm and range of notes, and Point Break plucks at the same chord for every one of its action sequences. There's no tension, no sense of danger, and that lack is fatal.
Speaking of lack, Bracey has yet to prove that his acting skills are nothing but a hair above non-existent. Ramirez is darkly charismatic and wisely carves out his own version of Bodhi. It's not a better version, but at least he does something different. Teresa Palmer, as Johnny's love interest Samsara, apparently thinks she's still in Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups, so whispery and twirly is her performance, though "performance" is used in the broadest possible sense here.
Point Break
Directed by: Ericson Core
Written by: Kurt Wimmer; based on the 1991 screenplay by W. Peter Iliff
Starring: Luke Bracey, Edgar Ramirez, Teresa Palmer, Delroy Lindo, Ray Winstone
