Yet another remake made too soon that doesn’t live up to expectations.
Many of you may already be familiar with Point Break, the iconic cult classic of the 90s. However, for those of you who are not, the film follows the character Utah, a former extreme sports athlete turned F.B.I agent who takes it upon himself to track down and catch a group of very skilled athletes performing crazy unique feats in order to carry out daring heists. Like it’s predecessor, this remake is brimming with action, chaos, and extreme stunts. It’s just too bad there’s little of anything else.
Ericson Core set out to create a truly action packed film with real stunts and he did so with stellar results. The cinematography was unlike your typical action film. Very little green screen was employed as they used real life extreme sports athletes to film daring and death defying feats from several angles with heavy cameras strapped on. Core really brings you a perspective that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you in awe.
Luke Bracey, who played Utah, filled the role comfortably and did a good job, although he wasn’t on par with Keanu Reeves in the original. However, the real performance that carried the film was that of Edgar Ramirez, who played Bodhi. His performance carried the film as every other character except Utah couldn’t be any flatter and dull. This brings us to the real issue of the film, the screenplay. It couldn’t have been written in a more trite and saccharine manner if they tried. This film is comprised of the story of Utah and Bodhi, and a couple other people who you could care less about and probably won’t know their names or importance to the film by the time the credits role. The story makes little sense as there is not much dialogue, especially very little in terms of character development. When characters come and go you don’t feel anything because for every 5 minutes of a stunt you get around 5 lines of dialogue that are more or less small talk. It feels more like a police television drama with some impressive action sequences rather than a full bodied film you’d pay to see. If great action sequences are something you like, there’s already an abundance on YouTube.
Save yourself the trip to theaters and watch the old Point Break. Even with death defying stunts, I still found myself bored and wondering why I should care for this story or these characters. The film was made with good intentions but with bad vision and suffered as a result.
