Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Patrick Swayze | ... | ||
Keanu Reeves | ... | ||
Gary Busey | ... | ||
Lori Petty | ... |
Tyler
|
|
John C. McGinley | ... |
Ben Harp
(as John McGinley)
|
|
James Le Gros | ... | ||
John Philbin | ... | ||
Bojesse Christopher | ... | ||
|
Julian Reyes | ... | |
Daniel Beer | ... | ||
|
Chris Pedersen | ... |
Bunker
|
|
Vincent Klyn | ... | |
Anthony Kiedis | ... |
Tone
|
|
|
Dave Olson | ... | |
Lee Tergesen | ... |
In the coastal town of Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers call themselves the ex-presidents. commit their crimes while wearing masks of ex-presidents Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. The F.B.I. believes that the members of the gang could be surfers and send young agent Johnny Utah undercover at the beach to mix with the surfers and gather information. Utah meets surfer Bodhi and gets drawn into the lifestyle of his new friend. Written by Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com>
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.