Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? No.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? For the locations, yes.
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 113 minutes (~2 hours)
“Point Break” is an extreme sports thriller that is a remake of the 1991 original. It revolves around a young FBI agent who tracks down a criminal as he attempts to complete a list of extreme sports for spiritual purposes. It stars Luke Bracey (Johnny Utah), Édgar Ramírez (Bodhi), Teresa Palmer (Samsara), and Ray Winstone (Angelo Pappas). It is rated NC-16.
“Point Break” is a beautifully made film that lacks a critical component — a coherent plot. That being said, the extreme sports scenes are wonderfully done. It would have been an excellent collaborative opportunity if there were a commercial sponsor like GoPro or a sporting gear company in the film. As it stands, it’s really more for sports junkies, who won’t be disappointed by film.
Highlights
Amazing extreme sports stunts
The film is really just a series of loosely connected extreme sports scenes — but boy, are they evocative! Utah and company travel all over the globe just to complete each of these sports, whether it be rock climbing without a harness, sky diving through canyons or skiing down treacherous slopes. To emphasise the lethality of these sports, there’s almost always a fatality at the beginning of each sports sequence. Of course, the characters have absolutely no safeguards to speak of, which just increases adrenaline levels. If you’re an extreme sports fan, you definitely have to watch it for these sequences.
Beautiful locations
These extreme sports don’t take place with the confines of a boring old gym. Instead, they’re set on dangerous terrain overlooking sweeping landscapes across every continent. Every sports scene begins with a breathtaking view of the new setting the characters find themselves in, showing you how beautiful nature can be without the touch of man. This also ties in with the antagonist’s motivations in a thematic way, which gives a symbolic reason for the wonderful scenery.
Letdowns
A thin plot
The plot is really just a series of excuses to send our characters on different extreme sports worldwide. “Point Break” does try its best to justify why they have to risk their lives amidst lush settings, but really, the plot is there just to string all the sporting scenes together. It makes no real sense why Utah has to chase Bodhi across all these places, and the motivation for the climax is a real head scratcher.
Feels like a long MTV
All the establishing shots of the sporting lifestyles of the rich and famous feel like an extended cut of an MTV, since there’s no real story in the first place. The characters do get together to deliver dialogue, but it just feels like chunks of exposition being forced into whatever gaps the film has.
Film takes itself too seriously
It’s difficult to reconcile the film’s premise with the real world, since the reasons for the worldwide chase are just so flimsy and contrived. But the characters take themselves and their tasks a bit too seriously, injecting artificial angst and drama where possible. You have to applaud the actors for the Herculean effort in trying to do a serious movie when ultimately, the audience is just here to watch the stunts.
“Point Break” appeals to a very niche audience, but it serves that segment very well by depicting the thrill, suspense and excitement of extreme sports.
“Point Break” opens in cinemas 3 December, 2015 (Thursday).
This review was first published on Yahoo.
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