POINT BREAK Direction: Actors: Rating:
The release of a couple of underwhelming 3D action adventures provides a sluggish start to the New Year. First off, there’s this pointless remake of the 1991 film of the same name. The Kathryn Bigelow helmed Point Break was a dynamic crime caper about a gang of bank-robbing surfers. The doover by cinematographer-cum-director Ericson Core (Invincible) is a standard-issue Hollywood offering which lacks incisiveness or the loopy abandon which made the original a guilty pleasure for audiences back in the day.
Although the story, such as it is, still revolves around an undercover FBI agent (Bracey), the testosterone-sodden update embellishes the big-wave surfing sequences with an array of other extreme sports daredevilry. This time out, the federal agent must infiltrate a group of poly-athlete criminals led by a faux-mystical mastermind (Ramirez). These globe-trotting larcenists steal from super-rich transnational corporations and then, in Robin Hood–esque fashion, shower the spoils on the povertystricken populace of cities like Mumbai and Mexico. Ha ha!
Matters spiral out of control when our starry-eyed hero gets drawn into the seductive lifestyle of the suspects he’s supposed to apprehend. The pursuit of justice takes a back seat to a series of death-defying exploits involving snowboarding, wing-suit diving, dirt biking and clambering up a vertiginous rock face of a cascading waterfall.
The macho posturing of the characters is at odds with their avowed quest for spiritual enlightenment. Worse, there are gobbledegook pronouncements relating to environmental issues. The portentous wall-to-wall music score is a further deterrent. On the other hand, there’s no denying that the how-did-they-do-those stunt sequences (reportedly performed in-camera by a host of extreme sports professionals) are astonishing.
In the lead roles, Venezuela-born actor Edgar Ramirez, who was so impressive in Carlos and his Australian counterpart Luke Bracey are nondescript. As the latter’s love interest, Teresa Palmer is inept. Another addition to the endless list of remakes, Point Break merely leaves us bemoaning the dearth of original ideas in Hollywood nowadays.