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Point Break (Pure Adrenaline Edition) [1991] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
![Point Break (Pure Adrenaline Edition) [1991] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51THTCKJRHL._SL160_.jpg)
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
A rash of daring bank robberies erupt in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys--former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a studly crime-busting fed instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. He goes undercover with just such a group, led by a very spiritual, very guru-type guy played by Patrick Swayze, who has some muddled philosophies when it comes to materialism. If you can buy all that, this efficiently directed (by Kathryn Bigelow) action flick has some diverting moments (credit it, for example, for anticipating the extreme-sports fad). But Reeves' intelligent-sounding lines don't make him seem remotely intelligent and that plot makes him look positively brilliant. --David Kronke
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Efficiently directed by Kathryn Bigelow and featuring some diverting action scenes, 1991's Point Break can be credited with anticipating the extreme-sports fad. A rash of daring bank robberies erupt in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys--former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a crime-busting federal agent instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. He goes undercover with just such a group, led by a very spiritual guru-type Patrick Swayze, who has some muddled philosophies when it comes to materialism. Reeves' intelligent-sounding lines don't make him seem remotely intelligent, but the plot makes him look positively brilliant. --David Kronke
Point out the conventions of the crime thriller genre
Review date: 2008-07-13 Rating: 6 out of 10
Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) stars as Johnny Utah, a newly recruited agent who is assigned an undercover task to seek out "The Presidents", a group of professional bank robbers, which leads Utah into a trail of high adrenaline stunts, romance and friendship, testing his strength to the maximum.
The crime genre has changed over the last couple of decades, with more CGI, gun fights and showdowns encoded for high octane viewing, and this Kathryn Bigelow (Near dark) justifies most conventions in a typical crime thriller.
Far from their best performances in the careers, Reeves and Swayze (Dirty dancing) are headlined as the stars of the show and fulfil the male icon, the tough cop and the sophisticated cool dude, and though the relationship between the characters is interesting, it doesn't have enough personality to cope with the dialogue and changes in the plot to make it dramatic enough.
However, Swayze's character Bodhi has an interesting perspective on life, on the freedom of society and to live for breathtaking moments, which does make his character intriguing and one of the reasons to carry on watching, even though the plot tails on an off all the way through.
With typical manly conventions such as guns, fighting, drinking and swearing all encoded, this film is a real guy film, though a soppy cliché of a romantic story is thrown in, like every other crime film out there and being a fan of the crime thriller genre I was disappointed, given the sceptical of surfing as an interesting sub story. The plot is inconsistent and doesn't do much justice to the genre, with poor direction in fights and chases and such.
Despite its faults, it can still be entertaining for guys who like adrenaline and typical male heroes and so forth, but for me it was poorly scripted, pretty predictable, clichéd, like every other crime film, and with very little different from any other new cop, new challenge, conflicted feelings film.
6/10
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Reviews
What a load of Rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!
Review date: 2008-04-25 Rating: 2 out of 10
Heard a lot about this film so I finally watched it......... it's like a B movie... Reeves is like a cartoon character in this film. The story-line's a bit boring and the acting is abysmal. It's one of the cheesiest films I've ever seen
Macho rubbish
Review date: 2008-04-19 Rating: 2 out of 10
A real Boy's Own film - surfers, bank robbers, gung ho FBI & scenes of untrained free spirits in free fall from aircraft! A celebration of blokish youth - if you like that sort of thing.
Perfect film for those who love cheese....!
Review date: 2008-01-11 Rating: 10 out of 10
This film is worthy of the 'Cheese Hall Of Fame' and thats what makes it fantastic.
Don't get me wrong; this film isn't for everyone - I watched it with my friend, and she hated it.
But for those who love Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, this is sure to please.
Go on - trust your instincts and buy this.
Hey, if you do hate it, just sell it again - someone else WILL buy it!!!!
Defining Film of the Nineties
Review date: 2007-12-14 Rating: 10 out of 10
Katheryn Bigelow's 1991 action thriller "Point Break" is still a ground-breaking film of the early nineties. It tells the story of the cop John Utah (Keanu Reaves) hunting a bunch of bank robbers camouflaged with masks of the former U.S. presidents. His investigations leads to a group of surfers and extreme sports worshippers, and the cop becomes fascinated by the free-style philosophies and adrenaline rushes of the gang around the charismatic leader Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). Their close friendship changes to a hard-fought rivalry at the end when cop and gangsters face point blank.
Bigelow uses typically American surf beach settings for this unusual and very stylish action thriller with great stunts like parachuting scenes, bank robberies, a car chase, police raids, martial arts, breath-taking chases and brilliantly photographed surf sequences. Watch out for the Red Hot Chillie Peppers as a gang of brutal surf nazis beating up Keanu Reeves and being captured by him during a hard-fought police raid.
But "Point Break" is even more than that - it also shows the lifestyle of the nineties in many ways. Bodie and his gang are a group of New Age-like grunge guys reaching out for the most extreme adrenaline experiences. They stand for the new style of extreme/fun sport worshippers, ravers and new spiritualists of the post-yuppie era in the nineties who don't care about wealth and status symbols but for fun, action, breaking the limits and finding the sum of all senses. "Point Break" is not only a well-done example of modern action entertainment without computer-generated special effects but also a very philosophical and spiritual study of society in the nineties.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
John C. McGinley
Keanu Reeves
Gary Busey
Lori Petty
Patrick Swayze
Director(s):
Recording label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
EAN: 0024543372325
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: AC-3, Colour, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2006-10-03
Universal product code (UPC): 024543372325
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 122 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1991-07-12
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: Spanish (Dubbed)