I watched this movie last Thursday thinking that it would be as good as the trailer. But apparently I was wrong.
Extreme poly-athlete Johnny Utah and his friend Jeff attempts a stunt traversing a steep ridge peak line, ending it by leaping onto a lone stone column. Jeff over speeds his bike and falls. Seven years later Utah is a FBI Agent candidate. He attends a briefing about a skyscraper heist where the criminals parachute down their escape. Another heist happens where the criminals unload Dollar bills mid-air over Mexico then simply disappear. Utah’s research concludes that they were done by the same men, who at the same time attempt to complete the Ozaki 8; a teaching of doing eight extreme ordeals to honor the forces of nature. They already cleared three, and Utah predicts they’ll attempt the fourth on a rare sea wave phenomenon in France. After presenting his analysis, Utah gets sent undercover to France under a field agent Pappas. They reach the place and Utah gets help from others to surf the tall tube wave.
But as he goes in there’s already another surfer in the wave, leaving Utah with unstable wave. Utah gets sucked into the wave and faints but the other surfer bails and rescues Utah. He wakes aboard a yacht with the other surfer Bodhi and his team Roach, Chowder, and Grommet. They leave him to enjoy the party and he gets acquainted with a girl Samsara. The next day Utah finds the men in an abandoned Paris train station after he overhears them about the location. Bodhi gives him an initiation fight and soon he’s in the circle. They travel to the Alps for the next ordeal, wingsuit flying through the cliffs. The four succeed in their attempt then have some time together with Samsara. The next day they climb the snow peaks for the sixth ordeal, snowboarding through steep wall of snow. They reach their spot but Utah decides to extend his line so the others follow him. But Chowder slips and falls to his death. Utah gets depressed about it. After a party Samsara explains about her and Bodhi.
Next they travel to a gold mine where Bodhi detonates some explosives Grommet and Roach planted. After blowing his cover, Utah chases Bodhi, managing to trip his bike. But Bodhi escapes as Utah can’t stand up after the crash. The FBI freezes Bodhi’s sponsor’s assets so Bodhi plans to rob a nearby Italian bank on a mountain top. Utah and the police intercept the group, resulting in a crossfire that kills Roach. As the group flees, Utah chases and shoots one of them but it turns out to be Samsara. Utah finds the next ordeal location, solo rock climbing with no safety besides a waterfall. he finds Bodhi and Grommet and chases them on the climb, but Grommet cramps and falters, falling to his death. Utah catches up to Bodhi but he leaps down the waterfall, completing the last ordeal. But Bodhi has to redo the fourth ordeal as he bailed out on the wave. 17 months later Utah finds him in the Pacific facing another giant wave. But ultimately Utah lets Bodhi go and attempt it. The wave engulfs Bodhi and Utah comes back home.
I admit I haven’t seen the original Keanu Reeves movie. But I already found significant differences just by looking at the synopsis on IMDb. This movie sure packs quite a promise with the new repackaging of adding in an assortment of other extremes sports besides surfing into the mix. What’s quite interesting is that the movie’s made up teachings of Ozaki 8 managed to steer some interest. Some people, including me, done searches about it on the internet, believing that it was something real but unpopular yet. I say that the story writer did a good thing in this aspect.
Yet the movie didn’t really capitalize well on this, or should I say didn’t even anticipate it. There’s no official landing page about the movie anywhere on the internet that those searches should easily link to. The Ozaki 8 would’ve been one cool thing to interest people into watching this movie instead of relying on the movie being a remake from the 1991 version.
The stunts, yes the stunts can also have an appeal. Yet the movie really failed to package this into great rides for the audience. Although there’s more extreme sports depicted in this movie, those action sequences didn’t really pack any punch, especially if we compare it to similar movies like, say, Vin Diesel’s xXx. The stunts here only show the same stuff as what we’d see in cable TV, while like in xXx, there’s the contingent thing happening, changing how the sequence carries on and forcing the athlete to improvise. Moreover, there’s little cinematography treats offered on those sequences.
The acting overall really shouldn’t be of much talk as it’s just standard level. Luke Bracey didn’t really give enough depth for his character even though he’s the main protagonist. Edgar Ramirez on the other hand quite managed to portray Bodhi’s mysterious and calm nature.Teresa Palmer and Ray Winstone are only in the movie to get some attention to it.
A mere 5 out of 10 score is from me for Point Break (2015). A recommendation is a definite no due to the movie being very much half-baked movie.
This Too Will Pass 