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Point Break

Point Break

List Price: $9.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I was swept into the excitement of the world of surfing.
Review: This 1991 film stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, an FBI agent trying to solve a series of bank robberies in the Los Angeles area. His partner has a theory that these robberies were committed by surfers. And so our hero goes undercover in the surfing world.

First, of course, he has to learn how to surf. And there just happens to be an attractive female surfer, played by Lori Petty, to teach him. Naturally a romance develops but what is surprising is the remarkably short time it takes him to learn to surf. There's conflict with the other surfers too, but as he was once a football hero, he plays football on the beach with them and wins the respect of Bodhi, played by Patrick Swayzee. Bodhi's into the spiritual side of surfing. And he's also into free fall sky diving, night surfing and the ultimate thrills riding the waves. The two men learn to respect each other. It's too bad that Bodhi is also a bank robber. And that he just happens to be Lori Petty's ex-boyfriend.

What follows is an action packed ride including chases on foot and with cars. There's several false leads and a bit of violence. The story follows a formula, which is to be expected, but yet it is done very well. The best part of the film though is the surfing. It was able to make me feel the thrill of it all while I was sitting comfortably in front of my TV. I'm sure they used a lot of stunt doubles and special effects. But I didn't care. I just let myself be swept into the excitement of it all.

Recommended -- especially for action film buffs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Action, surfing, sexy young guys=instant cult movie
Review: Kathryn Bigelow's adrenaline-fuelled thriller "Point Break" (1991) - co-produced by James Cameron - combines Californian mysticism with pulse-pounding action set-pieces and toplines the iconic figure of Keanu Reeves (fetishized here by Don Peterman's expansive cinematography) as an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates a group of itinerant surfers (led by Patrick Swayze) responsible for a series of daring bank raids. Despite the film's relentless macho swagger, "Point Break" aims for something more profound than your average summer blockbuster and is distinguished by some extraordinary visual conceits: From the glorious surfing scenes to the action highlights (most notably, Reeves' heart-stopping pursuit of a fleeing bank raider through a suburban landscape) to a show-stopping sky-dive sequence which lifts the film onto another plane altogether, far removed from the typical excesses of American commercial cinema.

Lori Petty ("Tank Girl") provides the nominal love interest - and very good she is, too - but W. Peter Iliff's script focuses almost exclusively on the ambiguous relationship between 'good guy' Reeves and 'villain' Swayze, drawing them together in adversity, while the supporting cast is rounded out by the likes of Gary Busey ("The Buddy Holly Story"), John C. McGinley, James LeGros ("Drugstore Cowboy"), and experienced surfers John Philbin ("North Shore") and Bojesse Christopher (co-writer and director of "Out in Fifty" [1999]), both exquisitely beautiful. However, Reeves dominates the movie with typical economy and grace, balancing his trademark 'cool dude' persona against the heavier dramatic requirements of his role as a dedicated FBI agent. The narrative stumbles badly toward the end (Swayze's abrupt deviation from established procedure during one of the climactic sequences is totally inexplicable, and the subsequent body count would almost certainly have prompted the FBI to dismiss Reeves from the service long before his final showdown with Swayze), but the film survives primarily as a unique combination of surfing, action and ultra-sexy young actors. Whether by accident or design, "Point Break" has 'cult movie' written all over it.

Not quite the collector's edition that some viewers might have been expecting, 20th Century Fox's region 1 DVD - which runs 121m 56s - reproduces the wide Super 35 frame in letterbox format (2.35:1), anamorphically enhanced. Picture quality is grainy in places, but generally OK. Subtitles and captions are provided, along with three audio options - 4.1 and 2.0 Dolby and 5.1 DTS, all of which are reasonably aggressive, though not quite as challenging as the 70mm version (blown-up from 35mm) which played theatrically during the film's premiere engagements. There's a number of trailers and an extremely brief (3m 30s) 'making of' featurette, and nothing more.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of those: "So Bad its Good" movies
Review: Every scene in this movie is unintentionally hilarious. Its a surfing movie that is really more like a parody of surfing. The patched together wave shots are comic gold to anyone who notices, the action is cheesy, Keanu Reeves serves up a "Bill and Ted try to act serious" performance, Swayze's character is such a stereotype its a joke, and Gary Busey is every bit as crazy as he is in real life. The chase scene in particular had me rolling. Utah actually gets a DOG thrown at him!?!

The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is the chick who plays Utah's love interest. for some reason she just gets on my nerves.

This movie is great, provided you don't take it seriously.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This should be a blueprint for how to make an action movie
Review: Everything about Point Break may seem ludicrous upon first glance, but thanks to having a more than competant director behind the camera (Kathryn Bigelow who helmed Near Dark, Strange Days, and K-19: The Widowmaker) and surprisingly great performances from Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, and Gary Busey. The story revolves around special agent Johnny Utah (Reeves) and his veteran partner (Busey) on the trail of a group of mysterious bank robbers who wear masks of ex-presidents. Soon enough, Reeves infiltrates a group of surfers (led by Swayze) who are believed to be linked to the robbers. The performances are great, especially Swayze who gives one of his last high profile film performances before his career began to decline. The fantasticly shot skydiving and surfing sequences are worth the price of admission alone, and Bigelow manages to nicely orchestrate some great action scenes. Although it didn't fare very well at the box office, to this day Point Break continues to garner a cult following thanks to home video and television. All in all, if you love action films with some actual intelligence behind them and have never seen Point Break, then you should definitely give this a look.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 100% Pure Adrenaline
Review: First I have to say, that as a surfer, I am biased. However I LOVED this movie. It is definitely in my top 10 action films of all time. Keanu is, well, Keanu, no better, no worse. Busey is probably better than average here, Swayze doesn't fit the role, but does a decent job with it nonetheless. Lori Petty was beautiful, sexy, and believable as Tyler, and the everpresent B-movie staple, John C. McGinley was great as Harp. Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis makes a cameo, too.

The action sequences were superb, especially the breathtaking skydiving scenes. This movie also has arguably the best two man chase scene in movie history. The plot is fairly original and engaging, and Keanu has a few good one-liners that elicit a chuckle every time. My only real complaint is that this movie is not available on DVD in the US.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the most enjoyable movies of the last 15 years
Review: C'mon! Some of you dudes are, like, taking this flick waaaay to seriously, man. This is a great movie to put in if your bored or high and nothing's on tv or if your with some friends and you don't feel like going out. Instead you get a six pack, a pizza, turn the lights off and pop this movie in. The absolute most enjoyable thing about this movie is its complete indefensibility. How can anyone possibly defend a movie in which no five straight minutes are the slightest bit believable. But that's the genius of it. At every even slightly crucial point in the movie, the plot demands that FBI Special Agent Johnny Utah (Reeves) make the stupidest decisions, the most incompetent blunders and display the most irresponsible and morally wrong behavior humanly possible in a member of law enforcement. If he wises up at all, he figures out who the robbers are and sends about two dozen black and whites over to their home and the movie's over in about a half hour. Pretty anticlimatic end, huh? Rather, its about three quarters the way through the movie that the obvious occurs to him. Second in his class at Quantico...riiiight. Instead, we get two hours of surfing, skydiving, bank robbing, stunts, fistfights, gunfights, hot babes, one-liners and chases. Personally, I prefer all the running around to the realistic ending. Don't you?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: AWESOME MOVIE! SWAYZE IS THE RIGHT CHOICE
Review: This indeed is one good action flick with a high amount of tension built up from start to finnish. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny Utah, former college football player turned fbi agent whose first assigment is to locate and inflatrate a gang of surfurs who rob banks. Swazyee is the gang's leader Bodi, a wise cool calculating indivdual who takes Utah for a ride through his bizzare neitherworld. One great scene was a footchase between Reeves and Swayzee after a bank robbery, Utah had bodi in his sights to shoot him but under the misguided sense of loyatly he did not. From that moment on Bodi realizes that Utah is FBI Agent and tends to get even with him. The film is fantastic Both Swayze and Reeves play the antoignists very well and are belivable in their roles. Gary Busey plays Angelo, Utah's seinor officer whose death scene was one of the memorable scenes in the film. Great action ranked as one of the best i have seen and if you want to see Keanu before all "THE MATRIX" hype i recommend seeing this film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: if only i could give it zero stars...
Review: This movie is so freakin' lame! Keanu continues his streak of forgettable and unbelievable roles as FBI agent Johnny Utah. Besides the stupidity of that name, his acting is so reminiscient of his role in "Bill and Ted's" that I actually watch it when it's on TV just to laugh at the plot lines and dialogue. Are we really supposed to believe that he ended his career as the Ohio St. QB, went to law school and finished at Quantico within the time frame they purport in the movie? Uh, no. When they're surfing at night after that really great football game on the beach (...yeah, it really looks like he was a college QB in those scenes!) there are at least two sequences where you can see the sun on the horizon, yet this was supposed to be at night? Poor. Oh, and he followed Swayze all over Mexico, Sumatra and Fiji, but still found time to surf "every day?" Come on! "Vaya con Dios," Keanu. Your acting stinks and so does this movie! Good thing the movie also had Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Pepper fame, too. He did a good job of making faces like he was either constipated or stupid.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of those movies you watch again and again.
Review: I first came accross this movie a few years ago on T.V. and even the bastardizing T.V. will usually do to a movie, I still enjoyed the bit of it I saw. This is also true for the movie "Lock Up." Anyways, I decieded to rent the movie, and was suprised by how good it was. Most movie "critics" shun Keanu Reeves's acting, and in a way, I kind of see why they see it that way, but at the same time I think they need not compare it to shakespere either. Most "critics" have it in for Keanu I think because of Bill and Ted. Which if you get past the obvious flaws, and enjoy the movie for what it is, you don't notice any of the so-called bad acting. Obviously, they are the only one's that think so, because the only votes that matter are the votes in the form of ticket sales, and quite frankly Keanu is on the upper escelon of this right along with Schwarzenegger,Stallone,Willis, and Travolta. And like Bill and Ted, if you just take the movie for what it is,it is a great movie. You really don't even have to try hard as Reeves once again makes a memorable character, and with Patrick Swayze in one of his best roles non-"chick-flick" that I have seen him in. Swayze is a very "real" and textured character as Bodhi. Basically the story is about Keanu Reaves's character Johnny Utah, who is a FBI agent getting his first assignment to track down the notorious Bank robbers, "The Ex-Presidents" who rob banks every summer-time and have never been caught. Along with Utah Gary Busey is Angelo,Utah's veteren FBI partner who is very big on doing things the "Old School" way. Together Angelo and Utah discover that the Ex-Presidents are probably surfers and figure out what "break" they surf by getting samples and doing anylasis.
Utah poses as a fellow surfer and meets what will be his love interest in the movie. Lori Petty plays Utah's love interest Tyler and initially teaches him how to surf, and also gives info on the othe surfers in which his attention is directed for the first time to Bodhi. Once Utah kind of gets the hang of surfing He and Angelo try to seek out who they think are the Ex-Presidents. They come accross this gang of Surfers led by Red Hot Chili Pepper,Anthony Kiedus, who have criminal records and when confronted by these surfers, Bodhi steps in and Helps Utah. Bodi then realizes that he is Johhny Utah QB from Ohio State. He then asks Utah to play some football with he and his fellow surfers. Once Bodhi sees Utah's exreme side while playing football, he kind of lets Utah into his gang. Bodhi tells Utah about the spiritual side to surfing and Utah gets taken in by this and later this would affect his ability to catch Bodhi chasing him after a bank robbery. Once Bodhi realizes that Utah is an FBI agent, he intends to get even by forcing him to be apart of a bank heist. However the heist goes horribly wrong when Bodhi breaks his own rule and stays in the bank too long causing his little brother's death. Eventually Angelo and Utah track down Bodhi on an Airstrip trying to flee the country and this is when Angelo gets shot and killed. Bodhi gets away but not for long as Utah remembers that Bodhi would be going to Australia to catch some in human Monster wave. As Utah apprehends Bodhi, Bodhi asks Utah for only one thing, to let him ride one last time. Utah agrees and Bodhi rides and fades into the wave dying in the process. By the end you learn some things and these messages really make you think. Who is really right, Did Bodhi have a point? I thought about the meaning long after the movie was over and soon bought the DVD and watched it many times since. If you have ever surfed, skidived or just think that your 9-5 job sucks and would like a movie either to relate to or give you soming to think about, this movie does that. Really give it a chance and think about what the meanings are and I'll bet you will like this movie as much as I have.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: This movie might posess the single funniest scene in cinematic history: when Gary Busey asks Keanu to get him 2 meatball sanwiches at 10:30 in the morning while they're staking-out the bank. "Utah!! Get me two."


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