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    Point Break

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    If you are absolutely dead-set on seeing “Point Break”; if no critiques or evaluations will deter you, then my recommendation is that you see it on the big screen and in 3-D. You’ll get your money’s worth of the stunts and effects that way. If you’re on the fence… there’s no getting around the fact that this is one bad movie.

    Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) is a former motocross star and polyathlete (meaning he will master any sport from surfing to skydiving) training to become an FBI agent. He thinks he’s figured out the MO behind a string of peculiar crimes: a group of eco-warrior/extreme athletes are looking to complete a series of element-based challenges to reach enlightenment, a portion of which is dedicated to “giving back”, hence the crimes which end in ludicrous charitable acts and donations. When Johnny begins infiltrating the group, he befriends their leader Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez) He might be getting a tad too close to them though…

    The only thing this film has going for it are the stunts and the 3-D. I try to be fair whenever I watch a movie. I have seen some that were all-out terrible in every possible aspect and this is not one of them. You have to praise the athletic feats here. It’s obvious that they were meticulously planned out and expertly executed. You have everything from skydiving, to base-jumping, rock-climbing and even some truly outstanding sequences that include wingsuit “flying”. Whenever you see the actors/stunt people doing what they do best, the movie is very entertaining. I half expected them to screw up and end up smashed on some rocks, with nothing left of them but a gooey smear it’s so intense. I don’t know if any of the actors here were pro athletes before the movie started, but if they weren’t or they used stunt doubles they had me completely fooled. With the way the cameras are used, it draws you right into that action. The stunts all lend themselves very well to eye-popping 3-D effects with snow or rocks flying at the screen, multi-layered shots with people flying through the air, or even people suspended in water. It looks great.

    I’m not sure why this movie was made. Is “Point Break” really a movie that demanded a remake, or that people actually care about? Maybe someone wanted to stitch together a bunch of extreme stunts so bad they decided to insert them in a half-baked story. The writing is truly awful. I’m going to single out the characters as the worst element. You don’t care, or get to know anyone in this movie except for Johnny Utah and Bodhi. Everyone else is either there to deliver some exposition, or destined to die so we can see that these stunts are truly dangerous. No kidding. A great example is Teresa Palmer as Samsara. She’s only in the movie to look good in a bikini and make doe-eyes at our hero. She has no personality and I couldn’t tell you for the life of me what she actually contributes to the team of criminals she’s on. I didn’t see her doing any of these stunts.

    It wouldn’t be so bad if everyone were at least distinguishable from each other. All of Bodhi’s cronies are white guys in their late 20’s/early thirties with slight facial hair. They’re all white or light brown so when someone dies you’ll say, “Who was that again? ” It’s not that hard to make your characters unique! Give one of these bozos an eye patch or green hair, anything so the audience can tell who bit the dust on that rock-climbing of parachuting sequence please!

    It doesn’t help that the antagonists’ motivations make little sense and no one in their right mind would be tempted to join their organization. They’re essentially a bunch of cultists who say they want to give back to the world after spending millions partying, surfing, skydiving, etc. but when you see what kind of nonsense they pull off, you realize they’re actually lunatics who aren’t even friends. I’m not sure if they’re human come to think of it. These people’s idea of practicing for an extremely dangerous stunt, something that would take even an expert months of mapping and planning, is to have their own little night of “Fight Club”. If at least we saw them dedicate some time to perfecting their talents maybe you’d respect them, but the movie isn’t interested in that, it just wants to feed you stunt after stunt in the hopes that you will too dazed to realize how ridiculous it is.

    On top of being badly written, featuring flat characters, and missing out on some obvious opportunities, the movie is so predictable you’ll be able to see every revelation and twist coming. This movie is like “xxx” on Mountain Dew, and that movie was already “Die Another Day” on Gatorade, so the frat boy stupidity is off the charts. The stunts and special effects might be great, but when absolutely everything isn’t even giving the illusion that it’s passable, your movie is in trouble and you have to sit through intelligence-dissolving metaphysical pseudo philosophical rubbish that passes as the motivation for these characters’ actions too. If you’re going to see “Point Break” though, see it at the theatre in 3-D because at least displayed like that, the spectacle of it will prevent you from leaving completely disappointed. (3-D theatrical version on the big screen, December29, 2015)

    3
    HelpfulNot helpful  Reply
    adamwatchesmovies@  31.12.2015 age: 26-35 2,866 reviews

    I didn't read your whole reply in case there were any spoilers but very impressive.

    HelpfulNot helpful Reply
    chappybear@  2.1.2016 age: 26-35 5 reviews

    Show all reviews for this movie
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