Point-less

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 2016)

Point-less
I'm sorry .. I just couldn't resist the play on words. Normally, I never pan anything because how many of us manage to put together a movie? And this one was a huge production judging by the length of time the credits over dramatic music went on afterwards.
Truly, the movie is a beautiful mounting, although I felt the color tones were a bit depressing. I'm sure that was a choice but, again, had I had the no-doubt monumental initiative to have become the director, and had I been the director, I think I would have gone with something a little brighter no matter how bleak the story.
I was looking forward to seeing the original Point Break redone, not because I expected there could be any improvement to the classic with the unbeatably hot Keanu Reeves nailing something of a debut as the opposite of an airhead, but just because it would be interesting to see how the 1991 film would be revisited 24 years later. I guess that's what goaded the filmmakers to give the movie a new story, and, you know, you have to admit, robbing banks in Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon masks probably wouldn't resonate as much today. As it was, the movie did give a nod to those famous scenes when the antiheroes rode around on little motorbikes that made me wonder if they might be able to fold them up and put them in their back pockets, with masks that, if they did not recognizably mock famous people, were paired with signs such as President Obama's campaign cry "Yes we can." Yes we can was a funny take on the so- called criminals doing exactly what they weren't supposed to do just as, in the original, the filmmakers had fun with Nixon's cry of "I am not a crook." Though the current filmmakers apparently couldn't figure out how to work in Bill Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman."
The "Yes we can" referred to something else, though ... what these new quasi-criminals dared to do in the execution of and mostly the getaway from their, I guess I'll call them exploits because, more than in the original, the question was if they really were criminals. The problem with the newer story was that there was not much, er, point to this. If you're a fan of American Ninja Warrior or the original American Gladiator which seems to have spawned such shows then you might enjoy what ensues ... extreme sports. If you enjoy watching a string of challenges which have little to do with conflict, go for it. That kind of falls into the James Bond reason for being in my mind, at least of yore; the Daniel Craig ones are more complex, have more character development, as English students always say. With the Bond movies, people were fascinated with the spyware. But if you don't want a plot that is just an excuse for such a showcase, in this case of physical courage, turn away now. I did like how the main roles were cast against the types, Reeves and Swayze, whom we remember from 1991. Luke Bracey is hot ... you'll remember him from November Man but not know it. I guess the guy can act. But now I'm going to go and rewatch the original to see why it worked.