Catching Some Waves with Point Break (1991)

I find that as I watch more and more movies, more and more crop up that I want to see. When I started this whole year long daily movie quest, I remember people saying that they couldn't even think of 300 movies to watch. One of the movies that I noticed pop up on my radar a few times, most notably in Hot Fuzz, was the film Point Break. This seems to keep coming up in the oddest places, and it became a movie I wanted to see to know what the heck it was about. I had a good feeling about it since it starred Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, and Gary Busey. Seemed like a good combo. Enough talk, lets get out there and hang ten!


Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is a crack-shot FBI agent (if you can believe that) who has just made it into the bank robbery division. He meets his new partner Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) and together they try to crack the case of the "Ex Presidents" bank robberies. They've made 27 robberies over 3 years, and there's never any clue left behind. The only theory going around is Pappas' that the robbers are actually a group of surfers, but it's not taken seriously and is laughed off most times. Now that Utah is here though, he's young enough to blend into the surfer crowd, once he learns to surf that is!

The Ex Presidents get away with yet another heist!

Before I get into the actual break down of the movie, I'd just like to point out something that may make me look a little foolish. I had no idea this movie was about surfing! All the clips and talking I'd ever heard about Point Break was about bank robberies, and Keanu Reeves shooting his gun into the air while yelling. You'll understand then why I was surprised when it became a full out surfing movie. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on with the show!

The surfing all looked real. I wouldn't be surprised if the actors really learned to surf for this.

The action in Point Break was quite good. It gives a really good mix too. We get some bank robberies, tons of cool surfing, steak-outs and FBI raids and shoot outs of all kinds. There's even some really good sky diving scenes that I expected even less than all the surfing! This film is all about getting your adrenaline running and keeping you on the edge of your seat. Thrills are what the surfers are after, and that's what the film aims to give you too.

The movie isn't perfect however. Keanu Reeves has this goofy surfer accent going on for the whole movie. It's not too heavy, but it's there. While this makes him fit in well on the waves, it made it really hard for me to buy him as a highly trained FBI agent at the beginning. Eventually I got used to it, but it was really stupid at the start. I'm not sure if this was an issue in '91 when it came out, or if the 90s were just crazy like that and it was perfectly accepted. The movie definitely has a certain quality of silliness to it now that you just have to buy into, or the whole thing will seem out of place.

He never misses, but is he even going to take the shot?!

Other than the strangeness of Keanu Reeves, I felt all the other actors did a good job. Patrick Swayze was perfect as the surfer mentor, and Gary Busey will always make a great cop/FBI agent. Lori Petty was also in this as the girl who first teaches Utah to surf, and later becomes his girlfriend. She's probably best known for her role in Tank Girl, but she fit in really well as a surfer riding the waves.

Even though I complained a bit about Keanu Reeves, I did get used to his accent and his character pretty quickly, and that just meant I was along for the wild ride director Katherine Bigelow had set out for me. After having seen The Hurt Locker, I can see that she really likes to thrill her audience. I really liked the story and the unusual mix of surfing, sky diving, FBI investigations, and bank robberies. I got a little bit of everything, and it all ended up playing really well together. If you haven't seen Point Break, I think it makes for a good, fun action cop movie.