Movie: Point Break
Direction: Ericson Core
Cast: Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Delroy Lindo, Ray Winstone
Music: Junkie XL
Cinematographer: Ericson Core
Editor: John Duffy, Gerald B Greenberg, Thom Noble
Genre: Action, Crime, Sport, Thriller
Rating: ∗∗∗
What is it about: It’s an official remake of the same title released back in 1991. The movie is about a set of adrenaline junkies who are set to gain spirituality by completing the “Ozaki”, it’s a teaching of eight extreme ordeals to honour the forces of nature. This ordeals cost a lot to the FBI and they fail every time to trace the group. That’s when Utah (Luke Bracey) enters, who himself is an extreme athlete and volunteers to go undercover in order to take them in, this forms the crux of the story directed by Ericson Core.
Why it’s disappointing: The movie straight away dives in to the most clichéd plot which involves infiltrating a gang by an FBI agent. It doesn’t have a solid narration which could hold you throughout the movie. The events in the movie are so clustered that it gets confused down the line with FBI, adrenalin junkies, undercover, spirituality and moreover save the planet with a hippie angle. All this becomes too much to fit in to the short span of the flick.
The logic takes a hit as it doesn’t make sense at most of the parts, as the events occur at random. With all these going they had to bring in a romantic sub plot just to emphasis Samsara played by Teresa Palmer, she appears for a very short stint and becomes a great eye candy.
The makers of this flick just picked the basic plot from the original movie released back in 1991, other than that everything else is fictionalised to its glory.
The heart-breaking thing of “Point Break” is that it could have been a great action flick if at all supported by a strong screenplay. The actors on screen were very wooden and lacked the emotion required.
What to watch out for: This movie totally banks on the action sequences. If not for them, no one would even consider watching it. They were breath-taking, every sequence out did the other. My favourites are the opening Motocross and the Wingsuit flying sequences, they were too exhilarating.
All the stunts were done in real by the stunt doubles with no CGI, which makes this one better than the others. The cinematography was astounding by the director Ericson Core himself, who took the camera to every nook and corner of the earth. He puts you right in to the sequence and 3D added a great deal of fun in watching these death defying stunts. The VFX used was decent enough to support the rest and editing was at a great pace. All this was well mixed in crunching DOLBY sound which accentuated the effect it required.
Verdict: Point Break fails to be a complete action flick due to its lack lustre treatment to the script, which makes the smoking hot action cold. Still it manages to drag itself only due to the death defying stunts. Watch it for its jaw dropping action sequences and 3D experience.
