Point Break (Blu-ray)

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Regardless of the film´s flaws, it is an absolute hoot. This is definitely a film to crack open a Mountain Dew (or my preference, a Vault) and enjoy the ´extreme´ nature of the film. It almost makes me want to throw on a bodysuit and ride the waves. Sooner or later, I will try out the whole skydiving thing, but this movie only feeds to my desire to live a fun live and enjoy a little adventure. It doesn´t tell me to go out and rob banks, but it says to ´have fun.´ Reeves, Busey and Swayze are cult figures and while they are far from being great actors, they were bankable at the time and for good reason. They were actors that just exude fun from their skin and their performances show this in the film. "Point Break" is far from perfect, but it´s a ton of fun and deserves its cult status in an age of the ´Extreme Sports´generation.

Video:

The 2.35:1 widescreen presentation of "Point Break" is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC MPEG-4 codec that is mastered at 28 MBPS. With the technical hubbub out of the way, I can now tell you that "Point Break" is neither impressive nor disappointing as a whole, but the transfer contains a few very disappointing moments where the film is grainy, soft and contains washed out colors. There are other times when "Point Break" is sharp and nicely detailed with natural coloring and looks fairly good considering its near two-decade age. I particularly enjoyed one or two moments where the look of water was quite sharp. The film was weaker in the early goings and did sharpen up, but there are times when the Blu-ray transfer cannot best the former DVD releases. Aside from the grain from the original photography, the film looks good. Source materials are generally clean and the digital transfer is flawless. This is just another case where the age and quality of the original photography doesn´t lend to an impressive experience in high definition.

Audio:

The visuals didn´t particularly excite me, but from the opening credits the sound was quite good. The credit sequence showcased many wonderful elements of sound. The crashing sound of waves and the falling drops of rain set the stage for what is a pretty nice sounding English 5.1 DTS HD Master Lossless Audio mix. The age of the original recording does tell a tale as the directional and ambient effects possess that late-Eighties and early-Nineties forced feeling where it is abundantly clear as to what direction each sound comes from. This is just an artifact of the times when usage of the surround channels wasn´t as seamless as it is today. This is a strong transfer that makes solid use of all six channels and I enjoyed the strong .1 LFE presence as waves crashed to shore. The musical score by Mark Isham sounds warm and is nicely contained in each channel. Dialogue is also strong. A number of other audio mixes are also provided.

Extras:

The DVD boots up to four trailers upon boot that must be skipped individually. This takes about ten minutes if you aren´t hammering on the remote. "Jumper," "Man on Fire," "Live Free and Die Hard" and "Rise of the Silver Surfer" are the films advertised on this disc. A series of eight very brief Deleted Scenes (4:34) begin the discs authentic bonus materials. The quality is worse than VHS and fills only a small portion of the screen, but fans should appreciate these lost deleted scenes from the well-loved film. Aside from the forced trailers in the beginning, three Trailers for "Point Break" are provided on the disc and can be played separately or collectively. A Photo Gallery is thrown in for good measure as well. However, the features are the smaller offerings on the Blu-ray disc.

Four featurettes are also included. It´s Make or Break (23:03) finds Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty and others remembering their involvement in the film. Busey is really wacked out these days, but he is so entertaining to watch. This was a nice introspective feature. Ride the Wave (6:08) is a far shorter featurette that was filmed during the sessions of the first segment, but this focuses on the surfing aspect of the film. Adrenaline Junkies (6:02) is the third part of the series and this looks more at the characters in the film and the actors that portrayed their high octane stunts. The final featurette, On Location: Malibu (8:32) finds some of the actors from Bodhi´s crew returning to Malibu and remembering the film. This fourth featurette was fun.

< b>Closing:

I´ll never all "Point Break" a great film. In the annals of cinema, it isn´t necessarily a good film. However, its sense of adventure and fun factor override its shortcomings and "Point Break" is a movie that is an adrenaline rush to watch. Maybe watching Keanu Reeves shoot into the air feels trite and cliché, but this moment is loved by many. This is a cult film that deserves its following and this is one of those films that never won awards, but won many hearts. The Blu-ray release features some very nice introspective features and a pretty decent surround mix that is accompanied by inconsistent visuals. It´s not a perfect film and it is hardly a perfect Blu-ray release, but those that love the film will want to sit back with their energy drink of choice and relive this one more time. It´s a blast.

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