Movies: Point Break

I feel sorry for the poor sap who delivered the pitch for "Point Break" to studio execs:

"This movie combines all the high-octane action of an undercover cop movie with the beautiful imagery and philosophy of surfing and skydiving! And did I mention Patrick Swayze's turn as the spiritual-but-tough surfer guru?"

"Point Break" is a movie about an undercover FBI agent (played by Keanu Reeves) who is tracking a team of bank robbers who happen to be avid surfers. The film also marks the rise of Keanu and the fall of Patrick (kinda literally, since 5 years later Swayze would suffer a major injury in a fall from a horse). Keanu has since gone on to be a huge box office draw, of course, while Swayze is mostly doing smaller roles (like his memorable turn as a guru/psychologist in "Donnie Darko").

With a plot like this, things get strange, as you might expect. The action scenes are never quite excellent, but they're serviceable - other movies have better car chases and shootouts, but other movies don't have gratuitous surfing scenes, either. The climax of the film, when Keanu Reeves' character does something VERY stupid, is exciting but also silly. Director Kathryn Bigelow has undoubtedly made better films ("Near Dark," for one), but this is one of her most mainstream efforts. There's some interesting undercurrents running through the work (look up what "point break" means and compare that to the end of the movie), so it's a little smarter than most action flicks...a little.

Rating: 7/10