It’s late at night. I’m flipping through the television channels in search of something entertaining. All of a sudden, it happens. I stumble onto one of those movies…you know the ones. It’s a movie that no matter how many times you’ve seen it, you always seem to find yourself watching it when it’s on. For instance, I can always find time to watch any one of the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy, and those are constantly being played. It’s one of those movies (series) in which you know the story, you can recite many of the lines and you can’t pick just one favorite part.
My wife may even endure watching some of these flicks with me, but there is one that she refuses to watch one more time. She doesn’t even like me to mention the title, she’s so sick of it. The two of us watch so many movies together, but this is her breaking point: ‘Point Break‘.
(Image: classickicks.com)
There is (almost) nothing about this movie that I don’t like. Sure, Keanu Reeves is not the greatest actor and there are definitely some cheesy scenes…but any time Point Break is on t.v., I’m watching it.
I first saw this movie when it came out on pay-per-view some twenty years ago. (Yes…I’m old.) I remember watching it with the aid of a scrambling device which allowed me to watch any station I wanted, at any time…for free. Of course, I didn’t just watch it once: I watched it over and over again. It even made me want to get into surfing, though I knew it really wasn’t a possibility (seeing how I was living outside of Hartford, CT at the time). I could even say that Point Break was responsible for the small scar under my chin. After seeing the movie, I took my skateboard outside onto my slightly sloped driveway and pretended like I was paddling out into the surf. For the briefest of moments I felt the wind through my hair and felt the freedom of the surf underneath me. Unfortunately it literally was only a brief moment, as, after gaining some decent speed, the skateboard wheels hit a rock, stopped dead and I went flying face-first into the pavement. Like a tattoo, Point Break was a part of my life from that point on.
A lot of people I tell about this movie have never even heard of it. To me, this is a damn shame. For those who have never seen it, the tagline (from imdb) tells you most of what you need to know: An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers. The movie has been referenced in a lot other films that have followed throughout the years, further proving its cult following. A few that I can think of at the moment are Hot Fuzz, Sugar & Spice, and a movie I recently saw in theaters called 30 Minutes or Less. In fact the story works so well, it was also re-imagined with muscle cars in 2001 and called The Fast and the Furious (it’s literally the same story).
Is this so surprising though? I mean, how could Point Break be bad? It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (pre-Hurt Locker) and stars “the supremely talented” Keanu Reeves and the multi-talented Patrick Swayze along with (wait for it)… Gary Busey. It also includes John C. McGinley (of Scrubs) and Anthony Kiedis (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers). There is plenty of action throughout and it contains one of my favorite chase sequences ever put in a film. I recommend it to pretty much every guy person I meet as it’s the greatest guy movie I’ve seen. If you haven’t seen it, you need to rent/Netflix it. If you have already seen it, you already know the greatness that is Point Break. Turn on your television right now and watch it again – it’s probably on TBS right now.
As for me, I think I’m in the mood to watch a movie. Maybe I’ll pop Point Break: Pure Adrenaline Edition into the DVD player and enjoy the rest of my night. (Looks at watch) “Little hand says it’s time to rock and roll.”
leoarsenault 