Technical assessment: 4
Moral assessment: 2.5
CINEMA rating: V14
Depressed from losing a
friend he had challenged to a cliff jump on a motorcycle, extreme sports
enthusiast Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) tries out for a job as an FBI agent. Asked why he wants to joint the FBI,
Utah says he needs and wants structure in his his life. Having passed the rigorous training he
gets a chance to prove himself as an asset to the organization when he provides
valuable information relating to a series of daring crimes involving a band of
do-gooding thieves. Utah firmly believes
these modern Robin Hoods led by Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez) are actually a
globe-trotting gang of extreme sports athletes committed to honoring nature at
all cost, and who are motivated by the so-called “Ozaki Eight”—eight extreme
sports challenges they must pass in order to attain the ultimate goal of
Buddhism: nirvana. Utah’s skills
in dangerous sports make him the perfect undercover agent to capture these
suspects.
Suffice it to say that the awe-inspiring scenery and the incredible
stunts alone make Point break worth
the price of admission. The
storyline is quite easy to follow and provides a rather excellent excuse to
stage the stunts that could take your breath away. We don’t want to spoil your fun so we will not bother to tell
you if the extreme sports footage owes is magic to CGI or to purely superhuman
skills. The protagonists deliver
enough emotional wattage demanded by this compelling crime drama; Bracey is
most convincing at the tipping point where his loyalty wobbles between his FBI
job and his passion for dangerous sports.
Point break is saying that a person’s
wild years are not meant to last forever.
Embittered by the tragedy brought about by his insatiable lust for
dangerous fun, Utah yearns for meaning and purpose in his existence, which he
believes he can find in a law enforcement career. Bodhi, on the other hand, justifies his obsession with
extreme sports by using it for ambiguous criminal-charitable acts—like
hijacking a plane stacked with cash and letting loose the bills to rain upon
far flung, impoverished communities. Good deeds, and yet the killing does not stop. Without the love of Christ in us, even our
most “spiritual” intentions remain an illusion of goodness, pleasing—and fooling—ourselves.
