'Point Break' full of weak performances

By Yun Suh-young

Some films are better not made. If it must be made, it should be made well, otherwise audiences are better off without it.

"Point Break," which releases Thursday, is an "extreme action crime thriller" that fails to be extreme or a thriller.

It is a remake of the eponymous 1991 film that featured Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.

The film, directed by Ericson Core and written by Rick King, is loaded with action ― scene after scene of big-wave surfing, snowboarding down Mont Blanc, flying between cliffs in wing suits and climbing without any gear ― but not much else.

The absence of a solid plot leaves the audience in a void, staring at the screen filled with flashy, yet spiritless, activities killing the beauty of the scenery. And most importantly, none of the characters (or actors) seems to be enjoying what they are doing.

Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) is an extreme sports athlete who applies to become an FBI agent, seven years after his friend Jeff dies while riding a motorbike with him along a steep ridgeline and trying to jump off to a lone-standing stone cliff. The incident triggered Utah to use his talent elsewhere.

As an intern FBI agent, Utah discovers a connection between two recent airborne heists and suspects them to be the work of a group of extreme sports athletes who are attempting to complete the "Ozaki 8." The Ozaki 8 is a list of "eight extreme ordeals to honor the forces of nature," created by eco-warrior Ono Ozaki. People who strive to complete the Ozaki 8 are trying to reach nirvana and achieve enlightenment, according to Utah.

Utah goes undercover to follow the group ― led by Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez) ― who are attempting to complete the Ozaki 8. They say they are doing it to "give back to nature what nature had given us," but this does not provide an adequate explanation of why they are committing the crimes. The film tries to explain their acts as extreme "spiritual" activities in which these "spiritual extremists" do not realize what they are doing is wrong. What is pitiful is that the connection between the extreme sports and the crimes seems to be under-explained in the film.

Hence, the tracking down of these "criminals" becomes nonsensical. The ending is even more confusing because the audience is left to speculate on whether Utah decided to go back to extreme sports, following the path of those who he had tried to track down.

The director, who was in charge of cinematography for "Fast and the Furious" (2001), should have been more fast and furious for this one, because the action scenes, though many, could not be more bland. They were far from exciting or energetic. The budget of $105 million could have been spent elsewhere and viewers' 113 minutes spent doing something else.