The 1991 original was the perfect combination of surfing idealism, epic scale bank robbery and freaky presidential masks and the Patrick Swayze vs. Keanu Reeves brotherhood friction was like super-charged lightning throughout, which is why there’s so much weight on the shoulders of the upcoming Point Break remake. The cult status that the Kathryn Bigelow directed first outing has picked up over the years means that a fair few of the old school fans will be tough to win over, but it could do well at attracting a whole new generation to the thrill seeking excesses of the film. Watch the trailer below to see some of the extreme sports stunts in action.
Release date
Cinema:
Point Break (2015) made its way to cinemas with a general release in the US on the 25th December 2015, which was followed by a UK release date on the 5th February 2016, having had the date pushed back from the 7th January 2016. You can put 3D to the side as it’s not really what the film is about, despite the fact that it will be available in both formats, but with the high production stunts and extreme sports shots it had a lot of visual appeal.
It was released around the same time in the UK as Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, Dad’s Army, Zoolander 2, Will Smith’s Concussion, French-Italian thriller A Bigger Splash and Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip, so it was far from a free ride at the big screen. However, it was the only action flick of the lot and calved out a niche for itself with such an extreme sports focus.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital download:
The UK home entertainment release date has been confirmed for the 30th May 2016, following the earlier DVD, Blu-ray and digital download release in the US on the 29th March 2016.
Story
While there are similarities between the two films at their basic points, with an extreme sports gang of robbers facing off against a lone FBI agent who has managed to infiltrate their ranks, there’s a significant difference in the motives behind the jobs they pull. Where previously Bodhi and his pals were just trying to hit enough banks to pay for their ongoing surfer lifestyle, the new gang are pulling massive scale robbery stunts to destabilise the international financial markets and satisfy their hunger for extreme thrills, which in all fairness do look very impressive.
Though surfing is still a feature, there’s much more focus on extreme thoughts with sky diving, snowboarding, free climbing and wing suits all in the mix as FBI agent and fellow extreme athlete Johnny Utah tracks them down and works his way into their ranks. The crimes themselves are very different too, taking things up a notch from the simple bank heists of its predecessor. This time around there’s jumps onto planes thousands of feet in the air to scatter its money hoard onto everyone below it, as well as a high impact bank job and the liberation of a massive gold mine, so things are definitely a bit complex that the “simple” surfer dream of yesteryear.
Cast
The cast for the 2015 remake is much less high profile than before, with a raft of new faces making their way to the big screen. Édgar Ramírez (The Counselor) takes on the very big shoes of gang leader Bodhi, and Luke Bracey (Home And Away) is no less overshadowed in the role of undercover agent Johnny Utah. The cast also includes Teresa Palmer (Knight Of Cups), Delroy Lindo and Bojesse Christopher. The biggest name in the cast is Ray Winstone (London Boulevard) who tries his hand at a new American accent, which we’re not massively convinced by.
Production
Point Break (2015) has been directed by Ericson Core, who has the unfortunate credit of being the director of cinematography for Daredevil (2006), and has doubled up on both roles on the remake. It has been produced by John Baldecchi, Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove, Chris Taylor, David Valdes and Kurt Wimmer (Total Recall (2012)), with the latter writing the screenplay for the film. Oscar winning editor Thom Noble (Thelma And Louise) was also brought in for the production of the film, along with production designer Udo Kramer and costume designer Lisy Christl.
First impressions
Though the action looks intense from the look of the trailer below, that was never really what the success of the original movie was based on, so the question is whether or not the remake can capture the same psychological knife-edge tension that it’s predecessor did. It does look like its at least making an attempt to include the brotherhood dilemma situation, but it’s hard to call how it’s going to turn out looking at the trailer below. Point Break also feels a lot like a summer movie and yet it’s release date will come smack bang in the middle of winter, so that could either act against it or work as an escapist reasoning to catch it on the big screen.
 remake UK release date, trailer and DVD details from the film section of Tuppence Magazine with the latest on the reboot of the 1991 original.){kind=link}