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Point Break, Review: Death-defying spectacle and spectacular deaths

Point break: Noun. In surfing, a type of long-lasting wave, found off a coast with a headland or point. Example: A point break is formed when a swell moves around the land, almost at a right angle to the beach, and a break, which begins near the point, gradually progresses along the wave.

A young Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) watches helplessly as his extreme sports partner Jeff (Max Thieriot) falls to his death from a mountain, in a motorcycle stunt gone wrong. Seven years later, he joins the FBI, where his motivations are questioned by trainer Hall (Delroy Lindo). Nevertheless, he manages to get a provisional agent badge and sets off after a group of extreme sports athletes he suspects of masterminding a string of unprecedented, sophisticated, corporate robbers: one, a skyscraper heist from the 101st floor of a company based in Mumbai (almost nothing is registered visually about the city) and the other, where the criminals unload and scatter millions of dollar bills from an airplane in mid-flight, over Mexico. After the crimes, the looters simply disappear.

As Johnny had imagined, the bunch is attempting to complete the Ozaki 8; a theory propounded by a Japanese eco-activist, now no more, that consists of successfully performing eight extreme ordeals, to honour the forces of nature. They have already cleared three, and Utah predicts they’ll attempt the fourth on a rare sea-wave phenomenon, in France. His analysis is rejected by high officials in the Bureau, but Hall is convinced. Utah is sent undercover to France, reporting to FBI’s UK field agent, Pappas. Soon, he manages to infiltrate the group, led by the charismatic Bodhi (Édgar Ramírez) and including Roach (Clemens Schick), Chowder (Tobias Santelmann), Grommet (Matias Varela) and Samsara (Teresa Palmer).

Of the Osaki 8 ordeals--Emerging Force, Birth of Sky, Awakening Earth, Life of Water, Life of Wind, Life of Ice, Master of Six Lives, Act of Ultimate Trust—the gang has completed three. Utah, himself an extreme sports enthusiast, must stop them and bring them to justice. But they have unimaginable resources, courtesy their mentor, Pascal Al Fariq (Nikolai Kinski), are tough as nails, and Bodhi is almost superhuman.

Loosely based on the 1991 film of the same name, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, the script comes from three authors, among them is Rick King, writer-director-documentary maker, who is best known for his 1991 hit. In that version, the robbers call themselves the ‘Ex-Presidents’ and wear distorted face-masks of ex USA Presidents, like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. And Utah gets trained by a pretty girl to help him infiltrate the gang. But things get ugly when Utah’s partner, a Vietnam veteran, on his last case before retirement, is shot dead. None of this is present in the 24-years-on remake. There are other elements in both films that are the handiwork of Peter Iliff (who was brought on board by King himself), like having the robbers dress like presidents, or for their leader to be a practicing Buddhist called Bodhi (Bodhi is part of the 2015 outing too).

The third name on the writing credits is Kurt Wimmer. 50 year-old ‘history of art’ graduate Wimmer is the guy who wrote 2012’s Total Recall remake, Law-Abiding Citizen, The Recruit and Equilibrium (also directed). He is largely responsible for this version.  High and repetitive on adrenaline, it paints card-board cut-outs of the human scene. Death-defying stunts, like other potent stuff that makes its way into your blood-stream through various entry-points, must be served in moderation, and not too frequently. Yes, we do drop our jaws when the giant wave twirls you around her little finger, or when a hand slips from the cliff. We almost applaud aloud when the gliding suits chart their course in a multi-colour descent…but then sit back and wonder, where’s the substance?

And why did you not script-in the Ozaki death scene? It falls flat and sounds detached when narrated 20 years later by Samsara. The bonding between Bodhi and Ozaki as well as the bonding between Utah and Samsara is far from NaOH+HCL=NaCl+H2O. It is far from clear whether she is the gang’s moll or a personal pair with someone or waiting to get hooked onto Utah, to give him a good time. The hangers-on do get the odd line, usually just brash or insignificant stuff. Their mentor and financer, who is “wealthier than many countries”, remains an enigma. He throws lavish parties, and arranges airplanes, buses, pick-up trucks, yachts, motorcycles and helicopters, all state-of-the-art, if you please, at the drop of a hat. If he had a motive, the audience was not told, not clearly, for sure...

Ericson Core, cinematographer of The Fast and the Furious (2001) and director of Invincible, shot Point Break in 11 countries, across four continents, using actual extreme sports stars and stuntmen. Locations include Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Berlin, France, Mexico, Venezuela, French Polynesia, India and the United States. And let’s give it to him…the film is location and stunt dynamite. On the lighter side, about half the sports are upward and the other half downward. The balancing act, I presume, has been designed for viewers who might be suffering from blood pressure. What goes down, soon comes up. Core lets the bursting with bravado young men meet gory deaths, one by one, while their partners merely philosophise about the loss of a beloved colleague, and move on.

Venezuelan Édgar Ramírez (Wrath of the Titans, Zero Dark Thirty, Vantage Point) is the second choice for this role. The first was Gerard Butler, with whom Wimmer had worked earlier (Law Abiding Citizen). Ramírez speaks English, German, Italian, French and Spanish.

He has the required profound look, but lacks the other matrix: mad streak. A harder, more authoritative look was required. Australian Luke Bracey (Monte Carlo, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The November Man), grew up surfing and snow-boarding and skate-boarding. His physical dimensions stand him in good stead. Indecisiveness and confusion that grip him for more than half the film do not translate in his performance.

Stock British cop is never difficult to play, especially if another character has already introduced him as “an acquired taste”. Acerbic, curt, even sarcastic, Ray Winstone as Pappas has a heart of gold. And since there is no transplant happening, it stays so. Samsara is played by Teresa Palmer. She reveals the back-story of Bodhi and Ozaka, appears to be uninterested in sex initially, but gets down to it later. Ambivalent and detached, she seems to be the 12th man/on the bench player, who, suddenly, is up and running in the dying minutes. She and Bodhi mouth deep, abstract lines, while living in the big bad world of gold, diamonds and currency. Delroy Lindo as the FBI trainer Hall is almost like any other trainer you have seen: cynical, discouraging, and suspicious. Lindo adds some persona, with clever use of his face and facial muscles.

After a while, it became impossible to tell Grommet from Roach and Chowder. The question arose time and again...which one died in the last scene? He? But I thought he had died three scenes ago! Max Thieriot endears himself in a cameo in the first scenes of the film. Nikolai Kinski, the billionaire with butt-sy babies and ever-flowing waves of dollars, has a small role, looks babyish, but has fun. 

It is easy to be seduced by the laudable premise that death-defying stunts, coupled with some other prescribed road maps, of returning its wealth to the earth, will restore the ecological damage done to the earth, without realising that the film’s narrative is weak. The sympathy Utah has for the gang is not really justified, their allowing him to infiltrate, in spite of being aware of his sinister design, are issues that detract from the spectacular stunts. Some questions are raised about the FBI too. In several recent Hollywood films, it has been underscored that the FBI cannot come into the picture when any overseas operation is involved. That is CIA domain. Point Break is all about overseas operations, justified in the film by highlighting that the billion-dollar companies targetted have American “connections”. It’s FBI all the way, with not even the barest sign of the CIA.

Stunts are indeed spectacular, awesome and death defying; whether they have been performed by the original actors, or their doubles (duplicates), or enhanced by CGI, it hardly matters. They are also indulgent, long and repetitive. And sadly, wherever he goes, Utah leaves  a trail of death, wittingly or unwittingly.

More than standard fare for XTreme sports fans, Point Break is much less than extreme, when it comes to screenplay, direction and performances.

Rating: **1/2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncvFAm4kYCo