Point Break (2015)

This remake is trash. The only reason Delroy Lindo is in the film is to make it look like there is something that resembles a plot. It is literally just an excuse to shoot extreme sports, which I admit is often a thrill - especially the rock climbing at the end (I had sweaty palms) - but with no character development, a shoe-horned in romance, and atrocious editing, it comes across as a lean but wholly empty vessel. There is a nicely shot underwater swim between Utah and Samsara, but it comes nowhere near to making up for the film's problems, among them; the utterly awful acting. Character motives are an after-thought in this grey and quite messy remake of a sort-of-classic. But, hey, at least it is not as terrible as Furious 7.

D+

Based on what I expected of the film, your review is not surprising. But better than Furious 7 Hope I can find out soon by myself.

An entertaining update of an entertaining film from the early 1990s, one which received mixed-to-negative reviews at the time, but is now referenced with a type of hushed reverence due to arguably overprotective nostalgia and sentimentality. The absurd-yet-enticing concept is largely the same—athletic, hip FBI agent Utah (Luke Bracey) is recruited to go undercover and identify surfing-and-skydiving thieves, and he then forms an in-too-deep bond with their soulful leader (Édgar Ramírez)—though this film expands its focus from the beach to an international smorgasbord of extreme sports, with stunt-heavy set pieces shot in, among other places, French Polynesia, Germany, Switzerland, and Venezuela. These scenes are the primary reason I dig this film: other than a third-act confrontation set on a boat adrift in a clearly computer-generated storm, each features pro athletes—mountain climbers, snowboarders, surfers, wing-suit flyers—performing real and daring feats, and the resulting combination (the palpable danger of their exploits coupled with majestic widescreen cinematography) represents a genuine dose of cinematic joy. The film is also buoyed by Ramírez, a captivating actor who collaborated with original Point Break director Kathryn Bigelow on Zero Dark Thirty and is honestly more talented than his role's originator, the late Patrick Swayze. He finds a certain musicality in his dialogue even when forced to contend with risible, pseudo-philosophical bull and has an electrifying physical presence. On the flip side, however, Bracey's handsome and dimly earnest presence is no substitute for the one-of-a-kind Zen master of stylishly wooden acting, Keanu Reeves.

B

Agree with David. The Angel Falls climb was exhilarating, even though Luke Bracy's head was obviously superimposed onto the real climber in a number of shots.

If you care about stunts, you might enjoy this. The plot is a boring mishmash of zen-environmentalism trash but doesn't matter and gives them an excuse for globe trotting.

B-