Johnny Utah is an FBI agent who ends up going undercover into the California surfing world when his partner believes a group of surfers are bank robbers known as The Ex-Presidents.
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The Ex-Presidents have a pattern of only hitting banks towards the end of the surfing season, wearing masks with Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Never hitting the vault and only taking the money that is on the floor, a very quick smash and grab robbery. Pappas who is partnered with the young Johnny Utah is the one who has built the theory around the group of surfers.
Utah gets on board with this, literally on a surf board. He attempts to learn how to surf to be able to get closer to the different groups and surfers. Especially Bodhi who he actually becomes friends with as well as staring a relationship with Tyler, something he certainly was not expecting on this job.
For whatever reason Point Break was a film blind-spot for me, I seriously have no idea how I had not seen this film before. But at least I have now fixed that, thanks to a great price on iTunes with my new Apple TV 4K! The main reason I am totally shocked by this is that the the film is such a fun ride from start to finish!
The action is fantastic from the surfing shots, to extreme skydiving and then a shoot out or three. It doesn't leave you long to catch your breath between the action either which is always a bonus in this type of film. A few twists and turns along the way as well, the chase scene was a particular highlight who was under that mask was it Bodhi as we all expected?
Keanu Reeves looked like he was having a lot of fun with this film and having caught up with Bill & Ted last year and his more recent outings I felt as though this one was very different again. Managing to capture a fun element within the action and he pulls that off in the best possible manner. Then we get Patrick Swayze who I have probably neglected in terms of his filmography with Dirty Dancing and Ghost being the big two, although recently watched Donnie Darko as well. He was a hell of a lot more than just a heartthrob from those first two films, fantastic in them though. In this he is pretty bad ass as a surfer, a thrill seeker and I really loved that. Gary Busey and Lori Petty are the standouts in terms of the supporting cast.
Just a final thought on the Ex-Presidents with those masks, how many films have we seen the Nixon one in? I vaguely remember a film with Halloween and a kid wearing one and possibly another robbery scene.
Anyway this film has a big following and really pleased that I have eventually ticked this off the film bucket list. I have to admit I always just thought it was a surfing movie, I was totally wrong about that. Yes, it has surfing in and within the plot but it is so much more than that. I also love that Patrick Swayze was a big skydiver himself and while filming they actually tried to get him to stop for insurances purposes!
