5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
A young undercover FBI agent infiltrates a gang of thieves who share a common interest in extreme sports. A remake of the 1991 film, "Point Break".
Starring: Edgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey, Ray Winstone, Teresa Palmer, Matias VarelaAction | 100% |
Sport | 7% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 MVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
U.S. & U.K. descriptive; Japanese is hidden
English SDH, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish SDH, Russian
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (2 BDs, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Blu-ray 3D
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
The end credits for Ericson Core's remake of Point Break run almost fourteen minutes, which is an appropriate coda to a film that, despite being busy and loud, feels as sluggish as that interminable crawl. Director Core and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet) borrowed the storyline from Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film of the same name, then stripped it of every element that has made the original an action classic, despite its initially poor reception. Bigelow brought her distinctive kinetic style to such genre staples as bank robberies, car chases and foot pursuits, and she understands that action sequences aren't thrilling unless they involve characters that lure the audience along for the ride. All Core and Wimmer have to offer is a stuntman's highlight reel padded to feature length with token exposition and complete disregard for anything resembling credible motivation. Their remake died at the box office, and I will be surprised if it attains anything resembling the home video acceptance achieved by Bigelow's original. Its only possible appeal is as demo material for a home theater surround system, and there's already plenty (and better) to choose from.
Screenshots are taken from the 2D Blu-ray.
Core began as a cinematographer on such films as
Payback and the inaugural installment of The
Fast and the Furious. He served as his own director of photography on Point Break, shooting
primarily on Alexa, supplemented by a Red Epic Dragon and various specialized cameras to
capture stunt sequences. Post-production was completed on a digital intermediate at 2K, but
Warner has already slated the film for an upcoming 4K release.
Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray sports a sharp, clear and detailed image, but the most
prominent feature of Point Break's imagery is the stylized palette, which might be termed "cyan
and ochre". Although the disc's extras and other PR materials stress the diverse and exotic
locations where the stunt sequences were filmed, Core has opted to make them look more similar
than different by casting a yellowish tinge over much of the frame and shifting the blues toward
green. Flesh tones are never natural, the sea and sky are rarely deep blue and even the greenery
turns yellow (and the white snow turns blue-ish). I'm not one to insist on naturalism in cinema,
but when the artificiality of a film's colors continually calls attention to itself, distracting from
the action and story, one can reasonably question whether digital manipulation has gone too far.
For good or ill, the Blu-ray appears to reflect the theatrical release and therefore can't be faulted
on technical grounds, but Point Break is an ugly film.
Point Break's 3D version was created in post-production, but many moments suggest that Core
shot with 3D in mind. An early scene involving the mid-air dispersal of millions of dollars in
currency creates a striking sensation of giant "confetti" flying out of the screen. The stunts
involving mountain peaks and ridges acquire an extra degree of vertigo-inducing height. Less
successful is the 3D extension of waves and water in the surfing scenes, which fail to outdo
Bigelow's film despite the increase in sheer size of the waves. An unfortunate side effect of the
3D conversion, in conjunction with the heavily tinted frame, is that the landscapes look even
more artificial than in 2D, including sequences with minimal CG, where stuntpeople and top
athletes risked life and limb to capture the action for real. This isn't a criticism of the 3D—which
has been capably delivered free from crosstalk or other distortion—so much as another occasion
to question whether the film's stunt sequences would have had greater impact if they had been
filmed and colored in a more documentary style. As a backdrop for the incredible, the ordinary is
often the best choice.
Warner's press release for Point Break promised a Dolby Atmos track, but the film's credits do not bear the Atmos logo, and no such track appears on the disc. An Atmos remix wouldn't make Point Break a better film, but it might have sold additional units to owners of Atmos-equpped systems. In any case, the film's 7.1 theatrical mix, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, does not disappoint. It's a typically loud, boisterous action-film track that pummels the viewer from all sides with wind, waves, flying debris and impacts of multiple varieties. Both the subwoofer and the surround array are effectively used, and if you happen to stop noticing after a while, it's only because your ears have adjusted to the sonic assault. (The same phenomenon occurs in Transformers films, which are similarly stylized and cartoonish.) Dialogue is occasionally smothered in the mix, but I doubt many viewers will care, since the dialogue is neither memorable nor important. The aggressive action score is by Tom Holkenborg, a/k/a "Junkie XL" (Mad Max: Fury Road), and the soundtrack includes enough genre-spanning tunes to have spawned a CD.
All the extras appear on the included 2D Blu-ray. The 3D disc has no extras.
I don't mind remakes if they're good, and reconceiving Bodhi and his clan as extreme athletes
seemed like an inspired idea when I first heard it. I sat down to watch Point Break hoping that its
failure at the domestic box office resulted from an overcrowded release season and that, like
Bigelow's 1991 original, it would show its mettle on home video. After watching the film, I
don't foresee a repeat of Bigelow's belated triumph (although the $100 million overseas box
office suggests that Point Break's life may be prolonged abroad). Core and Wimmer have
jettisoned everything that made Bigelow's film worth watching, including good performances. If
you must see it, rent it.
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