Point Break – Review

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A profoundly handsome white man travels the world in a bygone colonial era. A strange and powerful Oriental mystic reveals great truths to him from beyond the grave. The only woman cooks dinner for our protagonist and his indistinguishable buddies. All of the great Buddhist texts have been destroyed, leaving only a confused and tangled memory of the complex theories within. Was this a terrible dream, or was it the press screening of Point Break? I’m still not quite sure.

This film’s utter failure in just about every capacity is almost forgiveable, because it triumphs so spectacularly in one area: stunts. This is a plot draped weakly over phenomenal stunt work and beautiful cinematography, occupied by character and dialogue which is at best amusingly childish and at worst nauseatingly ignorant. In short, the film is about several men who commit crimes in order to get revenge for the damage mankind has done to the environment. All of these crimes involve surfing, wingsuit flying, snowboarding, motocross, and other Red Bull favourites. There is in fact a woman involved, but she is excluded from doing anything too difficult for most of the film, instead sticking to gentler activities such as philosophizing, cooking, and sleeping with the protagonist while her companions handle the heavy lifting. There is also spiritual element which I am neither able nor willing to clarify.


So on one hand, there is a lot of good stuff to see here. But most of it can be seen online, for free, being done by real extreme sports athletes. A subscription to the Red Bulletin is cheaper than a ticket to this movie, and will probably make you a lot less angry.

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