# Point Break 3D - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=67970[/img] 
*Title: Point Break 3D* 

*Movie:* :2stars:
*Video:* :4stars:
*3D* :4stars:
*Audio:* :4.5stars: 
*Extras:* :1.5stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*71




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=67978[/img]*Summary*
What the whating what? With the amount of remakes and reimagining’s being released over the last few years I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that Keanu Reeves’ “Point Break” was being put on the remake cycle. I mean, I can understand trying to remake a box office hit from the good old 80s and 90s, but “Point Break” had its claim to fame coming from the fact that it is one of those movies that is so ludicrously bad that it’s fun. So how do you remake a bad movie that was unintentionally hilarious to the point that it was joked about in all sorts of movies like “Hot Fuzz” and the like? Well, you make it even WORSE, but this time it’s not even unintentionally good. Instead it’s soulless, lifeless and overly preachy about a movie dealing with adrenaline junkies and crime. Carrying the same names and same GENERAL Modus operandi as its predecessor, “Point Break” manages to be one of the most mind numbingly boring “action” films of the last year. 

Kathryn Bigelow’s “Point Break” was about a gang of adrenaline junkies, called the ex-presidents, who commit heists in order to fund their insane lifestyle of base jumping, surfing and the like. Figuring out that the group of criminals wearing goofy president masks were surfers by the lingo and markings on their bodies, the FBI sends in agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) in to learn the world of surfing and take down the group of bad guys headed by Bhodi (Patrick Swayze). It was cheesy, filled with awful one liners and Gary Busey for some extra zaniness. Despite being a critical flop when it came out, “Point Break” became a cult classic that is just plain FUN when watching like only an early 90’s movie could be. 

Fast forward to 2015 and the suits have decided that it’s high time to remake the fun and charm of the original awful film (or awesome, depending on your point of view). We’ve got the same familiar names. Young Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) is what’s known as an extreme pan athlete. Basically an extreme athlete who doesn’t excel at just ONE sport. Instead he’s a lunatic who can snowboard, BASE jump, sky dive, rock climb, surf, AND do motocross. After a friend ends up dead from a stunt they pull off, Utah gives up the life of extreme sports and instead decides to join the FBI. Just as he’s being evaluated by his new boss, Agent Hall (Delroy Lindo), a group of criminals who pull off their crimes using extreme athletic stunts has just committed their THIRD crime. The whole FBI is stumped, but Jonny realizes that the groups aren’t committing their crimes at random. They’re actually following the path of the “Osaki 8”. A set of 8 impossible trials concocted by one of the world’s greatest extreme pan athletes. These 8 trials deal with different aspects of the earth and different types of stunts. Wind, fire, water, earth etc. With Johnny’s information in hand, the FBI sends the rookie agent in to infiltrate the gang and report back.

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=67986[/img]Well, things are never as easy as it seems and Johnny soon gets sucked into the world of these illicit adrenaline junkies. Headed by Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez), a Zen hippie spouting Venezuelan, the group welcome in the undercover agent after a set of stunts that puts the young man on their radar. Soon Jonny finds he has a crisis of faith, as he starts to feel a kinship with the men (and woman) committing these crimes. However, when things go too far, Johnny must make a decision. Is he a man of the law, or is he finally one of them?

The remake is a bit less coherent than the original, as Bodhi is not just some guy who’s looking for meaning in life. Instead he’s a self-help, Zen junkie who spouts spiritualistic enlightenment like he’s on a liberal arts college campus. This whole string of thefts and acting like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor and disenfranchised is not because he wants to help people. Instead it’s some spiritualistic way of atoning for each of the Osaki 8 trials. Every time they “take” a trial, the gang “gives back” to the earth by taking diamonds or gold “stolen” from the Earth and giving back to the people or buried under rocks to appease Mother Nature. It’s so ludicrous that I could barely wrap my head around the reasoning WHY they would do what they do, but hey, it’s not like there’s not a lot of gun fights and action in the movie? Well, actually there’s not a whole lot of that either. There’s 2 major action sequences, and except for the final one, they’re just blips on the radar. The rest is mostly just watching Bodhi and Utah do some obvious green screen stunts on screen that really is nothing new compared to even the original. 

The characters of Bodhi’s crew are nothing but 2 dimensional cutouts, with the obvious suspicions of the FBI agent that Bodhi seems to just ignore (as you do in a movie like this, since refusing to let him in would mean no plot). Besides Johnny and Bodhi, all you know is a couple of names and that these guys are just as crazy as Bodhi is, drinking up his Zen Kool-Aid like its water. Even the obvious romantic “bow chicka bow wow” moments between Utah and Samsara is basically a way to show some skin, as Samsara is about as cookie cutter as all the rest. 

“Point Break” (2015) might have been a semi passable action film if it wasn’t just so stinking preachy. Eco terrorists are usually annoying in most movies, and this is no different. The only difference is that they preach again, and again, and again the WHOLE movie. Bodhi is basically the eco swami of the movie and every one of his followers feels like an eye glazed over cult member who just is floating along under the guidance of their leader. There is even some sloppy attempts at covering the same ground as the original, including the famously hysterical scene where Johnny shoots his gun into the air screaming while Bodhi gets away. Except this time it’s not funny. It’s just pathetic.





*Rating:* 

Rated PG-13 for violence, thematic material involving perilous activity, some sexuality, language and drug material



*Video* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=67994[/img]Shot entirely digitally with a lineup of several differing digital capture devices to film all of the stunts and work of the athletes, “Point Break” looks rather spectacular in many ways, but really is defined by the highly stylized color grading of the movie. The entire film is covered with a sort of slightly hazy looking greens and blues that show off great detail on many of the jumps and dives that Johnny and Bodhi undergo, but do so at the expense of the blue end of the spectrum. Ocean waters never look deeply blue, but very green, and there is a yellowish tint overlaying the rest of the color palette that never allows for natural skin tones or proper contrast. Blacks are sharp and very inky, with some moments where the greeny blues create some mild video noise pop up here and there. Everything looks REALLY nice in the sunlight, and the color grading is distinctly intentional, but there is a lack of sharpness that keeps the film from really looking stunning.







*3D* :4stars:
“Point Break” wasn’t actually filmed in 3D, but was rather post converted after the fact. However, I have to wonder if the powers that be new that 3D was in the works, as many of the stunts and shots look composed FOR 3D, such as the BASE jumping sequences where the guys are in their flying squirrel suits and shooting out over the mountain tops, sometimes straight at the viewer. Depth is very nice and the backgrounds look appropriately layered for the majority of the time. The waves and water really are the weak part as they never seem to actually show that much depth and don’t look much different than their 2D counterpart. 








*Audio* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68002[/img]The highlight of the film just so happens to be the 7.1 DTS-HD MA track. Bombastic, entertaining and fully immersive it rocks the house with awesome LFE that ripples during the surfing stunts as well as adds incredibly depth during the famed rock slide. Vocals are crisp and clear with great presence in the front sound stage and the whole surround system works at full capacity nearly 100% of the time. The echoes of rocks falling shift from one side of the screen to another, and sometimes sounding like they’re coming from front, behind and to the sides all at once. Basically, it’s an action movie sound track that assaults the viewer with deep bass and a 360 degree field of immersion from all sorts of crazy stunts. The ONLY disappointment I have with the track was that Warner’s press released promised a Dolby Atmos track, but when we got the disc, like “Hercules” with The Rock, it was mysteriously absent. I’m not sure if the Atmos track would have been THAT much better, but the inclusion of those object based overheads are something that will keep me wondering until the inevitable 4K Ultra HD release comes out in the next few weeks (most likely they held it back on purpose to be an exclusive for the next gen format).








*Extras* :1.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68010[/img]
• Point Break
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailers
• Theatrical Trailer 






*Overall:* :3.5stars:

“Point Break” was not exactly a box office success. In fact it pretty much bombed a few months back and I don’t think that the home video release is going to really do much to change that fact. There were elements of the movie that was kind of fun, but by the end of the nearly 2 hour movie all I could think to myself was “what did I just watch”? Joyless and featuring a horribly stilted script and line delivery by our main characters, the box office failure is really just that. A failure. The Audio is stellar and the video is really nice, but that still can’t make up for a movie that just can’t seem to capture the audience’s attention. Skip It unless you’re really hurting for a Red Box rental.


*Additional Information:*

Starring: Edgar Ramirez, Luke Bracey, Ray Winstone
Directed by: Ericson Core
Written by: Kurt Wimmer (Screenplay), Rick King (Story)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 7.1, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, English DD 5.1
Studio: Warner
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 114 Minutes 
Blu-ray Release Date: March 29th 2016


*Buy Point Break 3D Blu-ray on Amazon*
*Buy Point Break 2D Blu-ray on Amazon*



*Recommendation: Skip It​*







More about Mike


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## Picture_Shooter (Dec 23, 2007)

The action / special effects on this film was good, but I much much prefer the original over this remake.  

But I am a sucker for action films and I plan to buy it soon. Thanks for the review bud.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Thanks for the review... I was wondering how the remake would be.


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