Got what I wanted. Solid action flick.

Rating: 9/10 (3 December 2015)

My attitude changed very quickly watching this "remake". First, I was surprised (pleasantly) with some new fresh faces on the screen. OK, maybe they don't have their full acting "chops" yet, but they do a very nice job of building decent characters and showing the tension and caring in their relationships. Luke Bracey, does a nice job with Johnny Utah and is sure to be the new heart throb for the ladies. I have a hard time with Edgar Ramirez, who struggles a bit with Bodhi, but he comes across well when it counts.
I thought the storyline actually tries hard to provide a fresh take on the original, but it probably tries a little too hard. The plot gets outlandish in places and veers away from the original, but gets a B+ for making the effort and ties it up OK at the end. It's pretty much what you would want in a hard core action movie. I will say there are a couple of romantic twists and turns that prove eventually to be fairly arresting.
But there is one area where this movie just blew the original away. The extreme sports scenes are almost shocking. One scene literally felt like I was in it and had me totally freaked out it was so frightening. Let's just say it's a skydiving sequence that unless you are an extreme athlete, you think something has gone very, very, wrong. The surfing scenes may be the best thing about the movie in itself. There is something about 80 ft. waves and those that ride them that evokes a kind of primal majesty. And then of course there is a rock climbing scene that is still giving me nightmares.
The bottom line here is that this Point Break is it's own movie. Yes, it borrows from the original, and uses the name, but that really doesn't even factor in here. This is Point Break for 2015 and it works for me. The new actors and the insane extreme sport sequences taken together puts it's own shine on what we remember as a great movie, and makes it better.