Point Break (1991/20th
Century Fox/Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: A- Extras: B- Film: B-
Kathryn
Bigelow’s 1991 action vehicle Point
Break is a film that even after 17 years still doesn’t seem to be able to
find its audience. Most people have seen
the film, remember the film, but is often forgotten about until it hits a new
format again, this time Blu-ray. There
are several highlight moments in the film that often make it memorable once you
think about it, they are: the skydiving scenes, the surfing scenes, and the
bank heist while wearing ex-president masks, which I always wondered if that
was some sort of inspiration on 1995’s film Dead Presidents, but whatever the case these three aspects of
Bigelow’s film are good.
In
between the heists, the surfing, and the skydiving though is a muddled
storyline that is problematic at times, mostly due to Reeves being out-acted by
Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, and Lori Petty, which is quite an accomplishment if
you think about it! Reeve’s is trying
hard to be a cool “Bill & Ted” surfer version of Bruce Willis/Mel Gibson
while pulling off the undercover FBI agent who must infiltrate a gang of wild
adrenaline-junky bank robbers and in the meantime try not to fall in love with
a girl caught up in the mix. One can
only be thankful that Matthew Broderick never got the role, although he was
offered the part, so was Johnny Depp and Charlie Sheen.
Point Break has had an interesting career in
DVD land and was originally issued along with several other discs from Fox as
part of their DTS series, which also included films like Last of the Mohicans, Chain
Reaction, Unlawful Entry, and a
few others. It was also issued in a
special edition DVD set called the ‘Pure Adrenaline’ edition and now comes to
Blu-ray featuring a 1080p anamorphic 2.35 X 1 picture and DTS-HD 5.1
audio.
Unfortunately
the image quality on this disc is less than stellar considering it’s a film
that was originally shot in Super35mm film and was even given 70mm blow-up
prints, but the Blu-ray is soft, grainy, and looks more like a standard
definition DVD in most cases. The beach
scenes look a bit better overall, but are still occasionally soft, while colors
look better here than indoor sequences.
Overall the print just doesn’t seem very consistent and won’t make any
Blu-ray waves anytime soon.
The sound
on-the-other-hand is a bit of a different story as the DTS-HD 5.1 mix is highly
engaging and sounds far superior to the lower Kbps mix that was on the DVD from
several years back, which was always more compressed than anyone hoped. Here the mix is fuller and tighter with lots
of action taking place to give the mix the life that it deserves and the DTS
track is up to that challenge offering a great sonic treat. For comparison purposes there is a Dolby
Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 4.0 mix also on the disc, which sounds closer to
what the DVD offered.
Since
this is a 50GB disc it’s evident that Fox is hopeful that this edition will
garner attention, and the extras make this disc promising for just that. There are four featurettes that cover just
about everything about the production of the film, the making of the film, and
are not overly in-depth, but are worth a visit.
Also included is the theatrical trailers, a handful of deleted scenes,
and a photo gallery section. All of
which round off a decent release of a film that is more hit than miss when
you’re in the mood for an action ride.
For our
previous coverage of the film on DVD, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4551/Point+Break+(Pure+Adrenaline+Ed
- Nate Goss
