Point Break: Pure Adrenaline Edition

Keanu Reeves hasn't always made the shrewdest career choices; for every Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure or Matrix film, there's been a Much Ado About Nothing or a Bram Stoker's Dracula (both featuring perhaps the worst English accents ever perpetrated by an American actor). But he was on a roll in 1991, the year that saw the release of the sequel Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, My Own Private Idaho, and Point Break, the latter an action-packed piece of escapism released here in what Fox is calling the "Pure Adrenaline Edition." Reeves plays Johnny Utah, a former star college quarterback now in the FBI, who is assigned with the older and more cynical Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) to track down the Ex-Presidents, a mask-wearing and uncommonly successful quartet of Southern California bank robbers. Once our boys figure out that the bad guys are surfers, it's off to the beach for Johnny, where he experiences some gnarly wipeouts before catching his first tube, meeting the love interest (Lori Petty), and also falling in with Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), a legendary surfer dude who waxes elegiac about "the spiritual side" of the sport, calling it "a state of mind…where you lose yourself and find yourself." Johnny and Bodhi form a highly competitive, mystical-macho bond that becomes the central relationship of the story and a major complication when Johnny discovers that his pal is the leader of the Ex-Presidents. Point Break helped propel the career of director Kathryn Bigelow (Blue Steel, Strange Days, K-19: The Widowmaker), and she handles the many action sequences here (not only surfing but various chases and a couple of exhilarating skydiving bits) with a sure hand. At times preposterous, pretentious, and just plain dumb, Point Break is nearly always entertaining, and it's presented here with DVD extras including deleted scenes, a quartet of featurettes, and a stills gallery. A strong optional purchase. (S. Graham)[Blu-ray Review—Aug. 5, 2008—Fox, 122 min., R, $39.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1991's Point Break (Pure Adrenaline Edition) boasts a fine transfer and a DTS HD Master Lossless audio soundtrack. The extras on the disc are identical to the previous DVD release, including an “It's Make or Break” featurette (23 min.), “On Location: Malibu” (9 min.), a “Ride the Wave” featurette (6 min.), an “Adrenaline Junkies” featurette (6 min.), five minutes of deleted scenes, a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a fun if somewhat dated action flick.]