One FBI officer’s life is at a crossroads, when he must choose between his past and his future to catch a group of criminals, in this remake. Based on the 1991 original film of the same name, “Point Break” centers around A young FBI agent named Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) who infiltrates an extraordinary team of extreme sports athletes he suspects of masterminding a string of unprecedented, and sophisticated corporate heists. Deep undercover, and with his life in danger, he strives to prove these athletes are the architects of the mind-boggling crimes that are devastating the world’s financial markets. In the middle of it, he sparks up a brotherhood with the group (Led by Edgar Ramirez) and finds love in the eyes of a beautiful admirer (Theresa Palmer). Filmed on four continents, North America, Europe, South America and Asia, “Point Break” presents extraordinary feats performed by the world’s top extreme sports athletes, and involves some of the most daring exploits ever committed to film. Extreme sports featured include snowboarding, wingsuit flying, free rock climbing, high-speed motocross, and surfing 70-foot waves, for a blood rush of adrenaline for action lovers alike.

“Point Break” is the embodiment of remakes in the 21st century. It’s lifeless, unidentifiable for fans of the original movie, and completely unnecessary considering the original wasn’t such a heralded classic to begin with. Director Ericson Core plays it pretty safely, never really taking the kind of chances to pay off creatively in character depth, or as memorably cheesy as the 90’s goodness that was the original. The film’s run time of 98 minutes leaves this too short of an offering to ever really establish the bromance of Bodie and Johnny or the romantic chemistry of Bracey and Palmer. It all feels too rushed, and mainly that has a lot to do with the focus on action sequences as opposed to real storyline development. Bodie and Johnny’s friendship feels more like a budding rivalry, and because of that, we never really believe that Johnny’s decision towards the end of the film is that much of a difficult one. On top of that, Palmer is completely wasted as simple eye candy for the male audience. There is only two scenes between her and Bracey, so their story just doesn’t matter in the bigger picture. One of the greatest parts about the original was the bombshells dropped, and with the exception of an admittedly suprising one in the final fifteen minutes, this movie has a great lack of them. Johnny isn’t shocked to discover his friends are criminals because he knew it to begin with. The criminals aren’t surprised to find out Johnny is a cop because they knew it to begin with. There is no kind of seed planting for a bigger reaction down the line, so the film just drowns before it ever really gets up on the board.

I mentioned the movie delivering on action sequences, and there is definitely nothing wrong with that, as they are beautifully shot and presented with some of the best professional stuntwork of the year. If you are going to enjoy just one thing in this film, it should be the awe that goes into the look inside one of the world’s most dangerous addictions to adrenaline. While the original film focused purely on surfing, this film goes out of it’s way on surf or turf to show that it plays itself a little more dangerously. The only problem that I had with these sequences was that they were a little too overbearing when compared to the pacing of the movie. The film and it’s storylines just kind of stop during every scene, so the movie can shoot something of amazement in the air. It’s kind of like when you watch a musical and everything just kind of pauses so the characters can belt out some ridiculous number about their lives, except this one doesn’t have anything to do with the development of the plot. The scenes are shot with exubberating production value, but I would’ve enjoyed more cohesive direction when it came to the conflicts that we are instilling into the audience’s minds watching this film.

As for the performances, none of this fresh faced cast really captures the magic of Swayze, Reeves, or Petty. Ramirez is probably the best shot of the bunch, but his character is pretty one-dimensional in shallow reactions to ever really intrigue me into thinking he’s worth following. For Swayze’s turn in the 91 original, you felt like this wasn’t just a criminal, but someone who had a pure love for the sport of surfing. With Ramirez, everything he does is for a bigger picture to rob the world of it’s riches, and it’s quite rare that we ever get a moment to explore his passions. I’ve mentioned before how I am not a fan of Bracey, and a lot of that is evident in this film. His performance is always kind of bland like a piece of paper, and that’s because his reactions to the terrible events around him don’t justify the serverity of their consequences. That big shock that happens with fifteen minutes left in the movie, is one that should rip him apart and leave him searching for strength. Instead, his character forgets it ever happened, and his lack of compassion is what makes the character tough to register. The original wasn’t a great movie at all, but it did have solid performances from an up-and-coming cast, and they made the most out of some cheesy but substantial life philosophies. Their characters were easy to get behind because we were presented their backstories and character traits in responsible time development.

Overall, “Point Break” paddles to stay above water during it’s opening act, before drowning in a sea of uninspiring muck that leaves the film searching for meaning. You will enjoy the over-the-top action sequences, but everything else will serve as a reminder that a better film with the same title is already out there.

4/10