In movies there’s the concept of the “guilty pleasure,” say a movie you love, but don’t want to let anyone know you love.
Myself, I try not to have “guilty pleasures,” at least when it comes to films. Then again, if I did feel “guilty” about liking a movie for some reason, Point Break would definitely be in that category.
Like many movies that got passed over in the theaters, I saw it many times on cable, enjoyed it when it was on, definitely didn’t take it very seriously, and just dug it as an entertaining, fun movie with an interesting premise of surfin’ bankrobbers.
Now of course,you guessed it, the Point Break remake was recently announced, and I’m curious whether it has anything to go with director Kathryn Bigelow finally having a big breakthrough with The Hurt Locker, and she’s also about to start her hunt for Bin Laden movie with Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal.
This project not only had the incredible luck that Bigelow’s finally broken through as a filmmaker after nearly twenty years of making movies, but that we also found and killed Bin Laden this summer, of course.
Who knows what direction the Point Break reboot will take? So far, the only thing we are sure of is that the film will obviously take place in the world of extreme sports.
Of course, part of Point Break’s charm was the terrible acting and stilted line delivery of Keanu Reeves.
Recently there was also the off Broadway phenomenon of Point Break Live! Considering my antenna isn’t in touch with the pop culture zeitgeist as much as it used to be, this had to be pointed out to me by a friend, and watching clips of it on YouTube, I found the whole concept very amusing.
The play was hilariously re-enacted with very minimal resources, and the lucky “actor” who got the Keanu Reeves role of Johnny Utah was picked out of the audience every night. One review called it a “travesty version” of the film, and also noted the worse a night’s performance is, the better it is.
Perhaps this is also what sparked the recently announced remake: some young executive saw Point Break Live! and realized it’s still very much alive in popular culture. Whatever the reasoning, the original should still hold up as a perfect Saturday afternoon flick when there’s nothing better to do that’s much better, and funnier, than you’d initially think.
