Point Break (1991)

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey

An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.

‘Point Break’ offers loads of surfing action for surf enthusiasts, but from a credibility point of view for a police thriller, it leaves very little to be desired.

Credibility issues are a major factor for this movie. From CCTV footage of a robber pulling down his pants with THANK YOU written on his butt (talk about cheeky!), the detective immediately assumes the gang to be surfers. So, everyone with a tan line is a surfer? And this automatically deems the entire gang surfers?? What’s even more preposterous is the fact that detective Utah (Keanu Reeves) then take up surfing lessons to get close to surfers… AND the FBI is paying for this…!!! All this BEFORE they’ve even found concrete evidence to prove the robbers were indeed surfers.

Enter Romance Interest, Tyler (Lori Petty). The very first surfer Utah encounters happens to be a girl, who is willing to help him, and whom he falls in love with. Are we done with all these convenient coincidences???! Uhm, apparently not, as plenty more were to follow. This film can be used as an example for cliches and predictability. It is nothing more than an excuse for a surfing movie – but with a very bad script. The romance is painfully predictable. The entire story is predictable. In short, I was bored. I was tempted to hit the forward button several times. (In fact, I did…).

Reeves’ acting also wasn’t believable, as if it wasn’t enough for his character to (also) suffer from credibility issues. Utah didn’t have nearly enough experience for the things he did. This guy has enough courage to jump from a plane without a parachute after just ONE jump, and he is able to successfully steer himself and even do tricks. Pfff!!!!

‘Point Break’ was a financial success, earning $83.5 million on a $24 million budget. Probably all the surfers who flocked to the theatres to get a glimpse of the nice waves…

Would I watch it again? Ugh, no.