There’s at least a 50/50 chance that any attempt to remake a classic will end in disaster, and very few blockbuster reinventions have discovered that fact more brutally than 2015’s dismal Point Break.
Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 gem endures as an everlasting favorite that finds a fresh-faced Keanu Reeves going undercover to infiltrate the charismatic band of thieves led by Patrick Swayze’s smoldering Bodhi, with the sexual chemistry between the two (whether it was intentional or not) completely off the charts. Looking back, it’s no wonder Gary Busey’s scene-stealing Angelo Pappas described Johnny Utah as young, dumb, and full of… you know.
Ericson Core’s needless remake, on the other hand, could only rustle up an 11 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes while cratering at the box office for good measure after bringing in just $133 million on a $105 million budget. Almost five times as expensive as the original and barely 10 percent as good, Point Break V1.0 remains capable of giving audiences a rush of pure cinematic adrenaline, as evidenced by the praise being heaped upon it in a recent Reddit thread.
It wasn’t a massive hit at the time of its 1991 release, but it didn’t take long for Point Break to focus its fierce gaze on cult classic status. Even now, it remains right up there with the finest the decade had to offer – which is no small feat when you consider the sheer volume of explosive excellence to have emerged during what might be the single most phenomenally fertile period in the action genre’s history.
