Point Break (1991) Reviews

• An under-rated classic

  Keegen1999-01-06

  Point Break is one of those films that everybody loves, but that nobody actually talks about all that often. It is a film that if you mention it in conversation, everyone else around is bound to say how much they enjoyed it. The film's two main assets are unexpected ones, in the form of the direction and the script. The direction by Kathryn Bigelow is nothing short of excellent. Her handling of the action and suspense scenes is exciting and riveting. The two sky-diving scenes are brilliant as is the foot chase through the streets (and houses) of the city. The script, by W. Peter Illif, is also very good and the best thing about the film. The plot is multi-layered and has an original relationship between the hero and the villain. The way the story resolves itself and the ultimate resolutions is excellent, by the standards of most Hollywood action films. This film deserves to be remembered as one of the better actioners of the nineties, not up there with Die Hard 2/3 or Speed, but better than 90% of the action junk made nowadays. At least this film has a plot.

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• The Sum is larger than the Parts.

  mikew-81999-06-23

  Movies are like Bands. People come together--maybe they're not even the greatest musicians individually--but together, something meshes and they make great music. It takes more than great musicians to make a great band. Just so, some movies, no matter how much money, talent, and horsepower is brought to bear, just don't coalesce. Others, like Point Break, come together with an ineffable "rightness" that defies any of the parts, logic, or analysis. This is one of my favorite movies. Period. Everything "works." This movie ROCKS.

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• How can you not like this film...

  gbenson202006-09-27

  OK, sure it is just a big action film with a flimsy script and crazy stunts but.... it is filmed so great. It feels so summer in Cali. It makes you want to forget your blah zaa blah job, move to the beach and surf your azz off and have summer bonfires all night and party the night away. I have been reading others comments on why they can't understand the guilty pleasure about this movie.... Duh that's the whole idea. Yes you can like movies that have you thinking about this and that at the end. You can have movies that astound you. And of course you can have movies that can make you feel like you had a great F'N experience. This is what this movie is. Eat your popcorn. Dive into it AND have a great time. Who cares about the social impact. Enjoy it and think about this. Sex Wax! If it's in the movie, it's a FUN movie! Holla

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• Still one of the '90s' most substantial action films

  nat-dalby2018-04-23

  Point Break is one of those films that's massively entertaining no matter how many times you watch it. Whilst this is common in the action genre, Point Break stands out in its era by being more of a morally complex story. The villain here is not your usual action villain. Keanu Reeves' character forms a complex bond with him and surfing culture to the point where it breaks his heart to have to bring him down. Swayze plays him like a charismatic cult leader and its believable that he'd sway enough people to get them onside for bank heists, all in the name of adrenaline. This makes Point Break not a film of "bad guys vs good guys" but a real exploration of a subculture and how it gets inside people's heads. It help that this is also a kick ass, brilliantly shot action film, with incredible sequences like the foot chase through LA and the skydiving making it as exciting as it is thoughtful. Unfortunately it came out in the same year as Terminator 2 so was (and is) criminally overlooked.

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• The film for an adrenaline generation

  rhino-252004-10-14

  Thirteen years on it sounds a little trite - an FBI agent examines his inner self whilst trying to bring down a gang of surfer bank robbers by infiltrating their scene. But dude, how Point Break pulled this off! In what can now safely be regarded as one of the more generation-defining cinematic moments of the nineties, Point Break serves as not just a credible well-paced action thriller spectacle, but also as a voice for advocates of the adrenalin rush. The movie's sleeper popularity at the time would no doubt have helped issue in a new generation of 'X' sports for a new generation, as hungry sponsors leapt at a new market. Kathryn Bigelow takes some key pointers from then hubby James Cameron and paces the movie brilliantly. There are many key moments of unique action - that chute-less jump from 4,000 feet being the highlight - that filled the trailer, but it is the cumulative effect of bringing these moments together that adds to the picture. For so many films the denouement is a gross failure but Bigelow controls the films peaks and troughs expertly and the ending is genuinely well handled, something that appears to be a real struggle for Hollywood today. In what will go down as Patrick Swayze's finest moment on film, he plays the adrenalin guru Bodhi with glaze-eyed and silver tongued expertise, and manages to pull off the very difficult assignment of being both sane and insane simultaneously with accomplishment. You can almost feel pulled by Bodhi's enthusiasm for a sensation 'as close as you get to God', and as a result can excuse the decade for being labeled that of the 'slacker' generation. The nineties weren't about slacking, just looking for a different kind of high.

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