This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Behind the Eight Ball
Plot Overview
The camera pans across some desolate hilly landscape and two bros on bikes appear, motocross daredevils Utah (Luke Bracey) & Jeff (Max Thieriot). “This is it, the Spine Trail,” one of them says. “We're gonna be the first to ever complete it.” There's reason it hadn't been completed before (“Jettison!”) Seven years later Utah alone applies to the FBI and is asked by recruiter Hall (Delroy Lindo) about his exciting past, “Why leave all that for all this structure?”
FBI Academy, 2015. Cadets are being briefed on a daring skyscraper top floor robbery of uncut diamonds that were later distributed to the poor, Robin Hood style. They are looking at “a set of perps with an unusual skill set.” Utah posits that it's the same perps who pulled a high altitude heist of paletted currency from a plane over the jungle of Mexico to rain down $100 bills on the peasants below, then they parachuted from the air through the trees into a deep cave at the bottom. He thinks they are attempting the “Osaki 8”, a semiotic series of “eight ordeals to harness the forces of nature. It's about spiritual enlightenment.”
International companies having American ties makes it the FBI's business who send Utah to Biarritz, France to team up with UK liaison Pappas (Ray Winstone) and intercept a giant 80' wave thought to be the next ordeal under Ono Osaki's 4. Life of Water. Pappas (“He's an acquired taste”) thinks it's a fool's errand as “FBI work's dirty, pedestrian, generally downright boring,” not a surfer picnic with pretty girls … like beautiful & spiritual Samsara Dietz (Teresa Palmer). Utah hooks up with some crazy surfers (“I'm in”) who know him by his reputation of “More balls than talent.” Surfer Bodhi and his team Roach, Chowder, and Grommet embrace him as one of their own (“This guy is seriously bad”) and Samsara just embraces him. It's the embrace of gravity, though, that can be the killer.
Ideology
I had my own ordeal the other day when we got freezing rain and the sidewalk was slippery on the walk downhill. I stepped into the street that looked bare but was covered with black ice and found myself shoe-skiing. At least I was getting somewhere, but after 100 ft. of acceleration and seeing the intersection looming at the bottom of the hill, I sat down and scooted over to the side. The movie calls this the breaking point, where one expands his boundaries to the point of fear, the point break.
I felt exhilarated. My neighbor who is a skier would never shoe-ski there outside his house, and I did it who had never skied before in my life. The roads were slick and jammed with abandoned cars. My regular cafe was closed because the cooks didn't want to travel in over the ice. I bought a couple burritos and a corn dog at a convenience store and ate them on a bench outside the downtown community college building that was also closed for the weather. Then I bought a sweet at a discount store for dessert. I did some errands then made my way to the bus stop for home.
The bus was delayed because the traffic signals on its way in were out. A group of passengers were milling around the stop, and being emboldened by my skiing feat, I offered a girl there my last McDonald's coupon for free french fries. Today was its expiration date, and I sure didn't have time to go there, but she lived right next to one and appreciated the token freebie. This was like the men in the movie whose confidence inspired them to offer strangers their largesse at a corporation's expense.
Solomon writes, (Eccl. 11:2) “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.” It's just because these evil things happen on this earth that we should store up some good to balance it, do stuff that gives us a good, a heavenly feeling. Seven is a number of completion, and the eight would be the additional. Just as I had a full meal and a dessert, too, for my portion, so one should portion out benefits to the full, and then some. Maybe the “Osaki 8” would lead to some kind of hippie Nirvana, who's to say? It's only a movie whose fanciful scheme is no more fanciful than those in any number of other movies. The offering was not done in the name of any particular deity, neither in Ecclesiastes nor in “Point Blank” (2015), but the evil that might come along on the earth was not attributed to any devil either. For that matter their prayer of grace at mealtime was a nonreligious holding of hands and moment of silence before, “Let's eat!”
Production Values
This movie, “” (2015) was inspired by Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 cult classic original but is not a remake of it. This one is directed by Ericson Core. Its screenplay was written by Kurt Wimmer (with help.) It stars Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey, and Ray Winstone. Their roles were one-dimensional as was their acting, so no great talent was wasted on this picture.
MPAA rated it PG–13 for violence, thematic material involving perilous activity, some sexuality, language and drug material. The cinematography and choreography of “Point Break” (2015) is exquisite, combined with a nice soundtrack. It contains an alarming amount of real footage of physical stunt work. The locations are impressive, that's for sure. It features world class action sports athletes Iouri Podladtchikov, Xavier de le Rue, Jonathan Florez, Dylan Longbottom, Laird Hamilton, Laurie Towner, Bob Burnquist, Jeb Corliss, John Devore, Chris Sharma, and Ian Walsh. The story line is almost too simple as the mind wants to fill in something more than what is there, but the movie stays focused on it while preventing it from interfering with the thrills and scenery.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
It helps if you haven't seen the original “Point Break” to compare it to, because this one runs on a different track not trying to compete. That said, it works in its own right giving us unvarnished thrills and action. If you can live without the varnish, you will like this picture.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed daring. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years. Special effects: Well done stunts. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall product rating: three and a half stars out of five.
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