Point Break.

Review #2520: Point Break.

Cast: 

Keanu Reeves (FBI Agent Johnny Utah), Patrick Swayze (Bodhi), Gary Busey (FBI Agent Angelo Pappas), Lori Petty (Tyler Ann Endicott), John C. McGinley (FBI Director Ben Harp), James LeGros (Roach), John Philbin (Nathaniel), Bojesse Christopher (Grommet), Lee Tergesen (Rosie), Vincent Klyn (Lupton 'Warchild' Pittman), Chris Pedersen ('Bunker' Weiss), Dave Olson (Archbold), Anthony Kiedis (Tone), and Galyn Gorg (Margarita) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (#1258 - K-19: The Widowmaker, #1548 - The Hurt Locker, #1820 - The Loveless, #2188 - Near Dark, #2361 - Blue Steel, #2494 - Strange Days)

Review: 

“Thrill-seeking adrenaline addicts have always fascinated me. The idea seems to be that it’s not until you risk your humanness that you feel most human. Not until you risk all awareness do you gain awareness.”

Sure, it feels right. The original idea of the film came from Rick King, who wondered about surfers who robbed banks. King had directed Prayer of the Rollerboys (1990), which was written by W. Peter Iliff, who once was waiting tables in his late twenties before becoming a screenwriter. Iliff's original screenplay (under the working title Johnny Utah) actually had bounced around for much of the late 1980s (Ridley Scott was at one point tapped before pre-production didn't go anywhere) before eventually falling into the hands of Lawrence Gordon and his company that went with Kathryn Bigelow to direct. Bigelow, alongside her then-husband James Cameron did re-writes for a production draft (one particular moment that Cameron came up with was the main character jumping out of a plane without a parachute); in short, it wasn't a movie crafted by one person but through a variety of influences (Cameron, for whatever reason, recently expressed a bit of bitterness over not getting a writer's credit). Made on a budget of $24 million, the movie was a decent enough with audiences at the time of release and it attracted enough of a following that someone made a "reality-play" parody (which premiered in Seattle in 2003) of the film that has a new unrehearsed actor play the lead role and read lines from cue-cards (various people have attended performances such as Busey, Petty, and even Bigelow). A remake was released in 2015, which was shot/directed by Ericson Core with Édgar Ramírez and Luke Bracey playing the lead roles, and a TV adaptation has been floating around for a few months.

Well, you either live for the ride, or the waves will just splash you away. The whole "initiation into a group by a cop" thing wasn't completely mined out by this point (as evidenced by say, The Fast and the Furious [2001] a decade later), but the best thing about the movie is that it just coasts on the amount of casual energy it has with its cast and action. The folks here play the whole thing as straight as you can play it even with folks being named "Johnny Utah" going from former football players to FBI agents (in fairness, Charles Tillman actually did go from former NFL player to federal agent, so there's that) to go along with people who are all in their own varying levels of inner balance*. Reeves was the one that Bigelow defended despite studio doubts, and, yeah, he makes for a good pairing with Swayze in that type of bond that basically goes past the usual cat-and-mouse game that comes with these types of movies. You've got vulnerability and the yearning to actually do something on one side with Reeves and the eclectic confidence that comes from someone who aims to be the master of their own domain (spiritually, literally, whatever). All will drift onto the other side, so why not try to aim for the ultimate thrill when doing so? The rest of the cast* are fairly charming in their aims for a film that takes things casually, whether that means a few chuckles at the strait-laced McGinley or the odd duck straight man nature of Busey (see, he doesn't always play louts or the heavy). Call it whatever you want (one label that has been floated around is "wet Western"), call it a movie about finding a soul within riding the waves of the frontier that is the sea, the important part is that it is a pretty neat thriller at the end of the day. It packs enough heat within its 122-minute runtime that coasts in the air with skydiving, on the ground with one particular chase scene and in the water for, well, various moments to try and capture the feeling of surfing (I myself can't say stuff about water besides trips to the waterpark). It even has an ending like a Western with the culmination of one perhaps finding a soul within the waves. For a movie as stimulating in its curiosity for high-octane interest as this one is, you will probably have a good time with a film that has managed to get to 35 years with relative ease.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*There are apparently people who find a homoerotic subtext to the film in the same sense that people try to do that for Top Gun. Truth be told, I wish people had half as much time to use on Strange Days, which is the far more interesting Bigelow movie of the 1990s. Seriously, go see it.

*My balance is trying to hide my desire to be wrapped up on an island with a lady just like Lori Petty's character. What a character, especially with that hair.

The Return of the Living Dead.

Review #2410: The Return of the Living Dead.

Cast: 

Clu Gulager (Burt Wilson), James Karen (Frank Johnson), Don Calfa (Ernie Kaltenbrunner), Thom Mathew (Freddy Hanscom), Beverly Randolph (Tina), Miguel A. Núñez Jr ("Spider"), John Philbin (Chuck), Jewel Shepard (Casey), Brian Peck ("Scuz"), Linnea Quigley ("Trash"), Mark Venturini ("Suicide"), Jonathan Terry (Colonel Horace Glover), Cathleen Cordell (Ethel Glover, Colonel's Wife), Drew Deighan (Jerry, The Paramedic), and James Dalesandro (Tom, The Paramedic) Directed by Dan O'Bannon.

Review: 

Ever heard of a fork in the road for "Dead" movies? You might remember that Night of the Living Dead (1968) was co-written by John A. Russo and George A. Romero that had plenty of input from each side. The movie was, well, a hit, so naturally Romero and Russo would become involved with something totally interesting to follow it...well, not quite. There's Always Vanilla was directed by Romero while Russo was just a co-producer. They basically split after that and did their own things. Russo did a few horror novels (such as The Return of the Living Dead) and movies of his own. Apparently, in 1978, Russo and Romero did an agreement where Romero got to produce and distribute Dawn of the Dead while Russo got the right to do his Return of the Living Dead, as long as it was not promoted as a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead. The story is credited to Rudy Ricci, John Russo (who, well, wanted to make a straight feature), and Russell Streiner, although it had had plenty of re-writes in the screenplay by Dan O'Bannon, who became the one to direct the movie when Tobe Hooper backed out to make the movie Lifeforce (1985). O'Bannon would direct just one other film with The Resurrected (1991) prior to his death in 2009 at the age of 63. Of sorts, the movie spawned a franchise, in that one could call a number of movies called Return of the Living Dead a franchise (1988, 1993, 2005, 2005) despite having little to no involvement from O'Bannon and company; Romero apparently was more annoyed that Russo didn't get his script made into a film. There are a few versions of the movie. The 2002 Special Edition DVD had music alterations because of copyright issues, while the 2007 release altered the basement zombie voice. A 2012 UK release had the original audio and soundtrack. Funny enough, even with "2K scan" and "4K scan" versions of the film for home media, the song "Dead Beat Dance" is hard to actually include. Even funnier, there was litigation over who had the rights to the intellectual property of the film as late as 2024. 

For whatever reason, the movie was first released abroad in April 1985 before hitting the States on August 16, 1985 (paradoxically being ahead and behind Romero's Day of the Dead, which was released in July 1985 in the States). I guess you could say it was a send-up of the Dead movies. But if that was the case, why call Night of the Living Dead as a movie based on actual events for this movie? Of course, this movie is the one that says zombies need brains, so there's that. For a person that rather liked Day of the Dead, it is a bit strange to call The Return of the Living Dead as merely a fine movie. Taking place in 1984 Kentucky (as one does when using the "based on a true story" trick), it certainly is a movie fit for a late night that would love to hear about a supposed cult classic and just roll with its action (91 minutes). It is a bit unwieldy in its humor, but it does have a killer look to its creatures and has some worthwhile mayhem with its death sequences because at a certain point, death spiraling can be gruesomely funny. The bumbling between Gulager and Karen and Calfa is amusing for a time, although one really does need more of a divide between them and the resulting punks, who really are just folks too bored and too cynical than punk, arguably; Quigley and her suggestive grace probably steals the show among the rest.  It does have a thin plot, as one does with a siege movie that has people eventually run and board things up before having a dour ending that probably had in mind to top Night even if it is a bit loopy. The zombies not just being easy to shoot or torch is interesting and probably served as an interesting jumping point for future films involving the dead, that's for sure. I like the effects for the zombies that have a good deal of muck (one is even chained up and others might be zombified animals), and the movie does have a general sense of mayhem for its entertainment. As a whole, it is a solid zombie flick with a few chuckles and gruesome fun that likely will be fit for a dark and stormy night that clearly has had staying power for four decades for good reason.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.