THRILL SCALE 1-10
9
HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?
Never
BEST SEQUENCE
I can't decide, so I'm picking three: the FBI raid and shootout midway through the movie, the car chase and subsequent foot chase after Johnny catches the Ex-Presidents in the act of robbing a bank, and Johnny jumping out of a plane WITHOUT A PARACHUTE and catching up to Bodhi in mid-air. In fact, initially I was going to give this movie an 8.5/10, but then I rewatched these three sequences and decided they were worth at least another half point
BEST LINE
"Hey! The name's Johnny Utah!"
"Who cares?!"
- And by the way, isn't Johnny Utah such a perfect action movie name? I love it
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE
69%
ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS
"Absurd, over-the-top, and often wildly entertaining, Point Break is here to show you that the human spirit is still alive."
IMDB SYNOPSIS
"An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers."
DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow
MAIN CAST
- Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley, Anthony Kiedis
THOUGHTS
- There's no particular reason why I haven't seen Point Break until now. It's definitely up my alley, but going into it I only knew that it was somewhat about surfing, I think I had a vague idea that there was skydiving involved at some point, and that there were bank robberies. I'm not even sure I knew about the Ex-Presidents' masks, though; masks that are now seared into my memory, because what wonderful masks they are - great visual gags, incongruously goofy to be seen during a violent bank robbery, and even a little unnerving, seeing the real eyes behind the rubber caricatures
- And I'll admit, for the first half of the movie I was kind of thinking, "well, sure, it's exciting if you like surfing." Because there is a LOT of surfing in the first 50 minutes or so, and comparatively little action aside from the first bank robbery and Johnny and Bodhi fist fighting with a bunch of bad guys, including Anthony Kiedis (yep, Mr. Red Hot Chili Peppers, himself). But then we get to the FBI raid I mentioned above, and MAN does this movie kick into high gear. I may have even found it more exciting ultimately because the first chunk of the movie is a bit more calm. In the back half of the movie the gun fights get more violent, the interpersonal relationships get more intriguing, and the skydiving sequences are truly breathtaking
- We've talked about Keanu Reeves before, and we'll talk about him again. Across the AFI List (Speed and The Matrix) and the Readers' Poll (Point Break and John Wick), Reeves is one of the most represented actors. He's not entirely convincing in Point Break, but for the most part he matches the movie's tone, and I've said it before, he sells the action, which is really the most important part
- This is probably my favourite Gary Busey performance, not that there's much competition in that category
- And I really loved Lori Petty. Super cute, playing a love interest with substance and character, she was my favourite part of the movie's first half (and she's good throughout, but then, you know, there's more action to focus on). I've seen Lori Petty in basically nothing; apparently she was in Free Willy, but I have no memory of that whatsoever. Whenever she was onscreen in Point Break I couldn't take my eyes off of her
- It feels like I'm giving short shrift to Patrick Swayze, but I don't have a whole lot to say about him. He's good as Bodhi, but he's not the most memorable part of the movie, aside from the fact that he very clearly did all his own stunts and skydives. The shot of Swayze jumping out of a plane, with the camera fixed on his face, is pretty fantastic
- Finally, here's a fun fact for you: as far as I can tell, this may be the origin of the phrase "Young, dumb and full of come," or at least the popularization of it. From a brief Google search, I didn't see any sources that predated this movie. And, another fun fact, there are quite a few style guides out there about when to use "come" vs. when to use "cum," like this one for example, and I really did not expect to need to look this up at any point while writing about thrilling movies, but here we are
Up next: It's the last movie from this block of Readers' Poll films, and it's also probably the funniest one on the whole list. From 2004, it's Shaun of the Dead
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