Long before The Fast and the Furious saw an LAPD officer go undercover as a street racer to find the gang performing daring high-speed heists, Keanu Reeves starred in this 90s banger that is as fragrantly ridiculous as it is enjoyable. Finally getting the 4K treatment, Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break.
Reeves stars as hotshot FBI Agent Johnny Utah, once a promising college Football player who lost out on a professional career due to a knee injury. Naturally, a pivot from sports to law enforcement was the obvious choice, and Utah swiftly rose through the ranks to become one of the youngest agents in the FBI. Paired with a worn-out senior office Pappas (Gary Busey), who has a wild theory regarding a series of bank robbers carried out by masked assailants known as The Ex-Presidents. Pappas believes the bank robbers are surfers, and despite ridicule from his peers (including a gloriously over-the-top John C McGinley as their boss), Utah thinks he’s on to something.
Before you can say surfs-up, Utah is buying a board and learning how to surf in a reckless use of policing resources. Thanks to the reluctant help of Tyler (Lori Petty), Utah learns to catch a wave and soon meets Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), a zen-like legend of the waves who, along with his inner circle, chases the endless summer. As Utah gets deeper into Bodhi’s circle, the lines between friendship and the law become blurred, and Bigelow serves up plenty of adrenaline-fuelled action.
It captures some stunning surfing scenes, an epic on-foot chase sequence where a cat is used as a weapon, and a skydiving sequence that still looks fantastic after 33 years. Reeves goes on quite the journey by reading the book Johnny Utah, a Golden Boy of the FBI, and following the letter of the law. One hundred minutes in, he’s clutching a gun and jumping out of a plane with no parachute.
When it hit cinemas in the summer of 1991, Point Break helped pave the way for action movies for the next thirty-plus years. The Fast and Furious may have morphed into the most impalpable franchise, but it started as a thinly veiled redo of Point Break. Even the ill-advised 2015 Point Break remake couldn’t offer anything fresh to the concept other than rehashing old ideas with a few new additions. On second thoughts, that essentially describes the entire Hollywood machine. While it will remain a mystery why Pappas’ Meatball Sandwiches didn’t become a thing, Point Break remains an adrenaline rush of a movie featuring another star-making turn from Reeves, and the dearly missed Patrick Swayze has a blast playing the baddie.
The 4K transfer is sublime; my only complaint is the special features are a bit light on the ground, with around 45 minutes of short additions, none of which include a comprehensive behind-the-scenes.
Point Break 4K and Collectors Edition Blu-ray will be released on August 5.