Product: Point Break [VHS] (1991)
Rating: 4.0
The Best Movie Ever Made!
The greatest movie ever made! Seriously, yes. No, I'm kidding. But, no, seriously. If you disagree all I can say is "Back off Warchild, seriously." Point Break was the the Starship Troopers of its era - which is another contender for best movie ever made - and brought together a disparate collection of unique treasures never to be assembled again, including:- A performance by Keanu Reeves so memorable that he was subsequently cast as Don John in Brannagh's Much Ado About Nothing.- The appearance of 'Craziest Person in the World' Gary Busey, who was voluntarily cast by Kathryn Bigelow whereas normally there's an agency clause or losing poker hand responsible for his appearance.- John C McGinley playing John C McGinley, practicing for his role in Scrubs as John C McGinley.- A range of such deliriously rich dialog that you can go through your entire life using only quotes from the movie and still manage to survive on the food Gary Busy orders.The plot is possibly the most implausible in the history of an industry famed for implausible plots. I've even seen Catwoman and nothing comes close to the concept of this: "Surfers rob banks to pay for surfing." Hmmm, why? We don't know. How do we they're good? Because - and remember this if you ever decide to take more than the free candy at Wells Fargo - they don't go for the vault and they don't kill anybody. For some reason the FBI gets involved, and if you've ever been tempted by a career in law enforcement let me tell you the FBI pays for surfing lessons while you shack up with Lori Petti.Anyway, Keanu - a name that I've never come across in real life, though I've met plenty of Summers and Rainbows - infiltrates the surfer dude gang by acting like a surfer dude. Well, not really acting but you get it. There's a point that comes dangerously close to science where they figure out the chemical composition of something left behind at a scene and determine that it's used on surfboards and ergo that the robbers must be a gang of surfers. I used this logic to conclude that the previous owner of my car worked in McDonald's when I found a 2-year old French fry under the spare tire. Keanu eventually gets caught in his duplicity by leaving his wallet around and instead of hiding his badge somewhere behind his Safeway and Costco cards, it's sat there with big three letters "F-B-I".There's some inspiring political stuff about "fighting the system" and showing people "inching their way down the freeway in their metal coffins", and that it's all about the ride. The whole thing is like Venice Beach with a brain, but thankfully doesn't last very long before we're back to jumping out of airplanes. Swayze is excellent as always and I'm sure his spirit looks down on the nightly Point Break LIVE! in LA, where audience members are cast as Johnny Utah. I wish I had a state as a last name, as long as that state wasn't New Hampshire.The finale will have you clenched on the sofa, with your brain rocking back and forth in your skull trying to make it stop: Bells Beach (Australia) - where Swayze is going for a suicidal surf into the biggest wave in history. The Australian police have terrible accents but maybe that's just Bells Beach where they happen to sound like American actors who don't know the difference between English and Australian accents, 'mate'. Keep a box of tissues handy since Bodhi's not "paddling to New Zealand" (at least not from Malibu).In conclusion, "22 years. Man, L.A. has changed a lot during that time. The air got dirty and the sex got clean." So true, Gary Busey. So true.