Rent Point Break on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Rick King & W. Peter Iliff (story), W. Peter Iliff (screenplay)
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.
Verdict
Surfing and bank robbing proves to be a fun combination. While Reeves can be a bit wooden, this provides more than enough entertainment to make it worth it. The story is well plotted, a thief looking for meaning and the one great wave pairs up with an undercover cop looking for a similar meaning out of life. He must ingratiate himself into the gang and stop their next robbery. Once he's in, it's difficult not to subscribe to their outlook on life.
Watch It.
Review
Recent Quantico graduate Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) transfers to Los Angeles, the bank robbery capital of the world. Then this cuts to a bank robbery where the culprits wear masks of ex-presidents. They're professionals, avoiding the vault and only taking cash from the registers.
Utah is partnered with veteran agent Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) who has a theory the robbers are surfers. Pappas thinks they're using their gains to follow the waves, and he proposes Utah goes undercover as a surfer to infiltrate this gang. First Utah must learn to surf, though he is an athlete. He was a college quarterback.
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| Gary Busey, Keanu Reeves play Angelo Pappas, Johnny Utah |
Utah quickly befriends Tyler (Lori Petty) and gets in with a surfing group led by Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). He's the charismatic leader of this group. While they're wary of an outsider, Bodhi remembers Utah as the promising quarterback whose career was derailed by injury.
The Fast and the Furious (2001) had to have taken some inspiration from this movie. Sure enough it did, copying the plot structure and replacing surfers with racers. It was pitched as Point Break with cars.
Utah and Pappas get a lead on who they think might be the culprits only for that to blow up in their face when they ruin an undercover operation. They instead begin surveilling a bank, with Utah wondering if it could be Bodhi's crew. Sure enough the bank is hit. The ex-presidents show up and Utah engages in a chase which ends up on foot as he pursues Bodhi. They both know, and Utah lets Bodhi escape. The next question is what Bodhi will do about it.
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| Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze play Johnny Utah, Bodhi |
Bodhi coerces Utah into joining him on a robbery. Bodhi escapes but Utah tracks him down to an airport. He doesn't stop the takeoff, but he does manage to get onto the plane before jumping without a parachute to follow Bodhi. Despite his recklessness he does survive though Bodhi gets away yet again.
Utah tracks him down again, and now Bodhi has nowhere to run. Bodhi ends up surfing into the sunset in a way. Utah is a cop, bound by rules and regulations. Bodhi is free, following the waves. Utah admires that, and that's part of the reason he lets Bodhi go. Utah is torn between duty and desire. He understands why Bodhi follows the waves, but he can't join him as he took an oath as a police officer.
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