Film Review: Point Break (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

Having an intellectually-lighter script can, in the right hands, be a huge advantage. It could be argued that the script’s and the director’s cognitive potentials add up to make a single IQ – if the script is low on its intellect, a high-IQ director can mend it by lending her or his potential to the equation.

That is why Kathryn Bigelow made the original Point Break in 1991 into such a memorable film, in spite of a paper-thin plot and so many dumb looks on the faces of the actors that some might think they’re solving mathematical equations.

The Point Break remake once again has a weak script, but I’m not saying that it’s director Ericson Core is unintelligent. However, Point Break 2015 is a bland endeavor that leaves the viewer in a state of nothingness, emotionally and especially intellectually. The story once again features a young, dashing daredevil (which is a horrible movie from 2003 which Core also directed) called Utah who also works as an FBI agent.

He embarks on a case he cracked himself thanks to his knowledge of extreme sports which propels him into an undercover role.As he tries to infiltrate a gang of similarly extreme-minded individuals with exotic accents (a new must for the edgier Hollywood action films), they go diving, surfing, snowboards and some other thrilling stuff.

But, the merger of all of these sequences is utterly boring as Luke Bracey, who plays Utah and constantly looks pissed off right before he begins surfing/snowboarding/underground MMA fighting. There is a lack of manpower in Point Break 2015 and it is seen in front and behind the camera. Bracey fails to provide the charm and charisma of the young Keanu Reeves, while Core is definitely not on par with Bigelow in any shape or form.

For example, a fantastic thriller like Sicario creates tension and suspense by only hinting at danger before it erupts. In Point Break, the characters might be snowboarding on the most dangerous mountain, but the emotions of the viewer’s remain indifferent to the things that the characters are going through.

There is also a lack of luck for this movies that I have to mention in this Point Break 2015 review – its timing is wrong. In 1991, extreme sports stuff was nowhere to be seen for the wider audience. It was new, fresh and exciting, interesting and stupid, all at the same time, like the name “Johnny Utah” itself. Now, Red Bull gave us a man who went skydiving from space and the planet watched it live. The new Point Break would have to be a lot more clever to make this collage of stunt reels work as an exciting movie. In its current form, it is just a pale reminder of an old and really great intellectually-light film.