There are great remakes and fair remakes and then there are "what in the hell were they thinking" remakes. 2015's POINT BREAK very clearly falls into the last category, in every way possible.
The original 1991 version is a deceivingly good film, probably a high point for Patrick Swayze (and his giant 80's hair) as Bodhi, bouncing off Keanu Reeves as a young FBI agent under his spell.
Director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) crafted a hell of a film, a fast moving action machine that's incredibly enjoyable.
So what in the hell is this mess?
Our bank robbers have been morphed into do-gooding, anti-capitalist Robin Hoods embracing Mother Earth and redistributing wealth around the globe. Bodhi is now played by Edgar Ramirez (snooze) and our FBI recruit is played by Luke Bracey (double snooze). They both run around the world staging massive action sequences that are amazing in the moment, but not connected to anything else in the movie. As a result, they have no weight.
When the characters speak, they babble platitudes and cliche lines at every turn, boring me to death when they weren't making me bust out laughing at how dumb their dialogue is.
Even decent actors like Ray Winstone and Delroy Lindo are pretty bad, sucked under by the heinous screenplay.
This film is an endurance test. It's damn near impossible to finish as set piece after set piece rolls in, with very little connection to the last scene and virtually no flow.
The budget for this mess was $105 million.
It made a total of $29 million and I'm amazed it made that much. It had to have been in the opening week, because word of mouth must have been worse then Travis Bickle's UBER driver reviews.
This is director Ericson Core's first film in the chair. Let's hope the box office results ensure it's his last.
If you make it to the end, sit in amazement as our two main lugheads meet on a boat, with huge, completely believable 100 ft waves crashing behind them. Listen to their dialogue and watch their interaction. These aren't humans.
Only in a TRULY bad film do people speak like this and act like this. There is virtually no power or impact of the closing scenes.
Of course, by the time you get to that point, there is the sheer joy of knowing this cinematic crapfest is over.
What a bomb.
What a massive, horrible, completely useless remake.
Why did they bother?
This doesn't get an F, it gets whatever is twice that bad, maybe a WTF?????
Brainless, expensive Garbage.
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