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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Am I wrong and sad to love Point Break?

21:44 / 05.05.03

I'm sorry, but I do.

I KNOW Keanu Reeves can't act, but I still can't help thinking it's a wicked film. Does this make me inherently sad and therefore unable to comment on anything filmic ever, or can I be allowed this minor critiquing faux pas? (And can I just point out here that I also really like Delicatessen and Man Bites Dog, just in case you've got the wrong end of the stick and think I only go to the cinema to snog in the back row.)

Hmmm...This is possibly the beginnings of a discussion on popular culture and could maybe include the likes of John Hughes films.

Possibly.

at the scarwash

22:50 / 05.05.03

Of course you aren't wrong. Point Break is a rediculously likeable piece of action fluff. Gary Busey? Flea? Surfing and guns? Sign me up! Further, Keanu Reeves is for one of the three roles in his life not miscast.

22:55 / 05.05.03

Out of nowhere or maybe from Hell,
Comes the biggest Mother of all waves,
Going to hit it, hit it real hard,
I just hope i don't go down,
Like Patrick Swayze in Point Break.

Where I come from, Point Break is second to Roadhouse in near-perfection (Or Black Dog, depending on who you ask). To hate it is almost a crime.

23:52 / 05.05.03

Especially when you consider the sky-diving bit where they swap parachutes....

18:34 / 06.05.03

Isn't there a babe in this movie? Who's the female lead in it?

I've heard whispered tales of how ridiculous and awesome this movie is, but haven't seen it yet. (Nor have I seen ROADHOUSE)

19:35 / 06.05.03

Roadhouse rocks..Patrick Swayze kicks ass through the generous application of Tai-chi. And its got Jeff Healey!!!!

HunterWolf...the woman in the movie is Lori Petty...of Tank Girl fame.

20:35 / 06.05.03

Point Break... the first time I saw it I was so enamoured of the skydiving thing that the next day I found myself a charity skydive (AFF with the Cancer Research Campaign) and booked myself in. And it's pretty fucking slashy, let's face it, which makes it cool. And romantic in a kind of fantasy novel way, what with all the stuff at the end with Patrick Swayze and the 50 year storm. Fucking appalling acting and script though... I like it anyway.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

23:04 / 06.05.03

Notice the wee subtle metamomoment wher "Patricks Roadhouse" is mentioned as location in the film.

Also, read...oh fuck it, I have a problem with the linking thing, but a highly amusing thread at "The Onion" regarding DVD collections, one night stands, and 'Point Break'.

The movie FUCKING RAWKS.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

23:05 / 06.05.03

Also, notice the Strongbow and Sainsbury's Soave on a Tuesday night spelling contest.

Brigade du jour

01:34 / 07.05.03

You like whatever you bloody well like darlin, and don't you dare apologise for it! Well apologise if you want but carry on liking what you like, that's the important bit.

Can't remember it much meself, although Lori Petty is verrry nice. I think.

13:17 / 09.05.03

Possible spoiler

IMHO Point Break is a truly amazing piece of work. Okay, the skydivers get higher as time passes, do all sorts of things that you either can't or don't do in free fall (like having a conversation, or flapping your arms "like an eagle"!!), this film is best enjoyed well away from anyone who's ever actually surfed too and I dread to think what the feminst viewer makes of the way Tylor starts off as a kickass major player then gets sidelined 'till right the end at which point she reappears tied up in her undies all ready to be rescued (or not) by the dashing Jonny Utah

. But it was the last work in bank robbery films 'till Heat, it has a pretty hard-hitting Nietzschean subtext to it, and Lori Petty is, well, what can i say?

The Natural Way

14:53 / 09.05.03

Fuck no!

The most slashtastic action movie ever. It's fucking rollicking, too. And hilarious, "Braah".

lord nuneaton savage

15:09 / 09.05.03

AND they use '7+7 is' by love on the soundtrack, AND thats the name of my band, AND it rocks, hooray!

21:32 / 09.05.03

And it's got that great on-foot chase in the middle too.....

22:27 / 09.05.03

AND...*sigh*... quite apart from all that, it's got the spectacularly bearded Patrick Swayze in it, being all guru like and wonderful to look at.

And Gary Busey is a bit of legend in it too (although not nearly so easy on the eye).

El Gato Was Right: the t-shirt

11:34 / 10.05.03

There's this overhead shot in Point Break that is inexplicably burned in my mind. Keanu, the undercover agent, has just slept with Lori Petty, surfer girl. They're in bed, she's snug and asleep in the crook of his arm, and he's flat on his back, angsty at his deception, and staring straight up at God, pinned.

Ever been there?

El Gato Was Right: the t-shirt

11:42 / 10.05.03

And, may I add, that Roadhouse is a perfect movie for that genre. That is the, uhm, 1980s Mulleted Badass Neo-Western.

The one bone I have with Roadhouse -- you're saying "One!?!" -- is that the villain, Uncle Somebodyorother, departs into the realm of unforeshadowed cartoonishly sadistic evil.

Maybe Roadhouse deserves its own thread. But, gawd, if it's gonna happen, someone else start it pleeze.

The Natural Way

12:01 / 10.05.03

There's someone called 'Warchild' in it, too,

I could go on all day, but "that. would. be. a. WASTE. of. time."

Oh, yes.

Haus of Mystery

13:07 / 11.05.03

The romance between Swayze and Reeves is particularly moving. Shame there's that girl there to ruin it.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

15:16 / 13.05.03

Roadhouse is perfection?

The same movie that MST3K made song after song about?

Sometimes you people scare me so much I want to hide under the floorboard and send out for Powerbars.

17:12 / 13.05.03

Point Break is perfect because it combines two genres nearly seamlessly, without doing damage to either: the bank robbery picture and the surf movie.

Surf movies are very formulaic - the genre was invented in the late 50s. There've been a few postmodern takes on it. The best is probably John Milius' Big Wednesday, which is all straight-faced drama about kids growing into grownups. Point Break is more fun.

You've gotta have a new kid, who makes friends with a friendly surfer.

You've gotta have a couple scarier surfers in the group (or a rival group).

You've got to have a misunderstood, older, loner who all the surfers look up to.

You've got to have a clash between the surfers and mainstream society.

And you've got to end the movie with the Ultimate Wave.

The original surf movies basically played the formula for laughs, with a few cheap thrills mixed in. (The first Gidget fucks with the ending; the Annette Funicello movies are gospel.) But the thing is, the formula works. It's gold -- subcultural gold.