Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey
Tag line: "27 banks in three years - anything to catch the perfect wave!"
Trivia: Keanu Reeves, who learned to surf for his role, still surfs as a hobby to this day
I am not the first person to call 1991’s Point Break an adrenaline rush, because that’s the perfect descriptor for this movie.
On second thought, I take that back...
A fast-paced thriller with an excellent cast and a dozen or so great action scenes, Point Break is not just an adrenaline rush… it’s the adrenaline rush.
Rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is assigned to the Bureau’s Los Angeles branch, where he is teamed with seasoned veteran Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey). Their first case as partners is to track down a gang of bank robbers known as the “Ex-Presidents” (because the thieves wear masks of former US presidents Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Lyndon B. Johnson). Over the past three years, the Ex-Presidents have ripped off two dozen or so L.A. banks, stealing only the money in the cash drawers and making sure they’re in and out in 90 seconds flat.
Despite having very few clues to go on, Agent Pappas believes the crooks are surfers, and are using their ill-gotten gains to live on during the summer months (every robbery has thus far occurred between June and October).
Against the better judgment of direct superior Ben Harp (John C. McGinley), Johnny goes undercover, posing as a wannabe surfer in the hopes it will help them learn the identities of the “Ex-Presidents”. After coaxing Tyler Endicott (Lori Petty) to give him surf lessons, Johnny is introduced to Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), a surfer / amateur philosopher who, along with his friends (James LeGros, John Philbin, Bojesse Christopher), enjoys living life on the edge, doing everything from surfing at night to skydiving.
For Bodhi, surfing is more than a sport: it’s a religion, and before long Johnny finds himself admiring his buddy's outlook on life. But when all signs point to Bodhi and his gang being the bank robbers, Johnny must decide where his loyalties lie: with the Bureau, or with his new friends.
Director Kathryn Bigelow keeps the thrills coming fast and furious, loading Point Break with a number of electrifying sequences. The surfing footage, much of which plays out in slow-motion, is plenty intense on its own, but in addition the film gives us everything from car chases and shoot-outs to extreme sports (one of my favorite sequences is when Bodhi introduces Johnny to skydiving). As shot by Bigelow and cinematographer Donald Peterman, even the bank robbery scenes (most of which end about as quickly as they began) are jam-packed with excitement.
The cast is beyond superb. Gary Busey is at his manic best as Johnny’s oft-unhinged partner, and while Lori Petty may not look like a typical surfer, she represents the ladies well, holding her own in what is an otherwise all-male storyline.
As for the film’s lead characters, Keanu Reeves is spot-on as FBI Agent Johnny Utah, but it’s Patrick Swayze as Bodhi who steals the show. A complex individual, Bodhi is on a never-ending search for the ultimate thrill, yet at the same time is the film’s most spiritual character (while sitting around a beach campfire with his compatriots, Bodhi gets all philosophical, saying what they’re doing isn’t for the money, but “to show those guys that are inching their way on the freeways in their metal coffins that the human spirit is still alive”). As brave as he is intelligent, Swayze’s Bodhi is arguably one of the most likable villains in cinematic history, and we can’t help but root for him a little.
I like Point Break more each time I see it, and thanks in large part to the work of Bigelow and the film's great cast, it deserves its ranking as one of the seminal action films of the 1990s.
Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen
Tag line: "Vampires can only kill you once, but they can terrify you forever"
Trivia: Both Johnny Depp and D.B. Sweeney auditioned for the role of Caleb
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark is a horror / western that, along with its unique love story, features some of the most intensely fascinating vampires ever to grace the big screen.
Caleb Cotton (Adrian Pasdar) had no idea what he was getting into when he asked Mae (Jenny Wright) out on a date. That’s because Mae is more than just a pretty face: she’s a vampire. When she puts the bite on Caleb, he, too, is transformed into a creature of the night.
Taken in, albeit reluctantly, by Mae’s “family”, which includes patriarch Jesse (Lance Henriksen), Jesse's main squeeze Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), the overly-aggressive Severen (Bill Paxton), and the adolescent Homer (Joshua John Miller), Caleb must face the brutal truth that, in order to survive, he now must kill. Alas, it’s a lesson that doesn’t come easy to him, threatening both his standing in the group and, ultimately, his life.
Of all the classic monsters, the vampire is far and away the most romantic, often relying on his or her powers of seduction to lure their prey. Yet the central relationship that drives the story in Near Dark has a different feel to it. Never once do we sense that Mae views Caleb as just another meal. In fact, their first night together, where they spend most of the evening driving around in Caleb's truck, could have been lifted straight out of a teen romance novel. In these early scenes, Mae doesn’t even try to conceal her true nature. As the two are staring up at the night sky, she tells Caleb (who, at this point, has no idea she’s a vampire) that the light leaving the stars at that exact moment will take billions of years to reach the earth, and, unlike every other girl Caleb has ever known, she’ll still be around when it gets there.
Once Caleb has been “turned”, their relationship changes, yet at the same time becomes more intense. Because he’s having difficulty adjusting to this new reality (that he must kill to survive), Mae allows Caleb to drink her blood instead (moments that give off a strong sexual vibe).
As for Mae’s “family”, they are a direct contrast to her in almost every way. Led by Jesse, they're a coarse, abrasive bunch of nomads traveling in a Winnebago from one Midwestern town to the next, leaving a trail of drained bodies in their wake. Needless to say, Jesse and the others don’t welcome Caleb with open arms: Severen threatens to kill the new arrival on the spot, and even young Homer is none too happy to have him around (Homer has a crush on Mae, and is plenty pissed that she’s focused her attentions elsewhere).
We never learn much about the backstories of these aggressive creatures of the night (when asked by Caleb how old he is, Jesse avoids giving a direct answer, saying only that he was once a soldier in the Confederate Army). And while we do spend a little “one-on-one” time with each of them (in a brief scene, Homer reels in his next meal by lying in the street, making it look as if he was injured riding his bike), it’s when they’re all together that things really get crazy (a visit to a roadside bar is easily the film’s most brutal sequence). X Near Dark also makes great use of its sparse western setting, as well as the minimalistic yet effective musical score composed by Tangerine Dream. Yet it’s this movie's unique cast of characters that's so unforgettable.
With Near Dark, director Bigelow tells a touching love story while also taking what has traditionally been a gothic creature and stripping it down to its most basic elements (feeding at night, avoiding the sun by day). In so doing, she has given the cinematic world one of its most visceral, and truly intriguing, band of vampires.
