Publication Date: 08-30-2026

Point Break (2015) review

Dir. Ericson Core

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ½★

Anyone who dislikes Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break should pay it a debt of gratitude, for director Ericson Core and company have shown how bad the cockamamie premise for that film could be if it were played deathly serious and plagued by a sterilized aesthetic with not a shred of soul to be found.

Bigelow’s film has achieved cult status, but in actuality, it’s always been a riveting action thriller with a great deal of personality, thanks to the yin-yang dynamic of a cool Keanu Reeves and the free-spirit of Patrick Swayze. From a breakneck foot-chase through the streets of Santa Monica to perilous sky-diving and surfing sequences, Bigelow shot the hell out of every scenario, and ample time was given to the characters, particularly Swayze’s Bodhi, for adequate humanization. Conversely, Core’s movie takes Bodhi’s message of individualism in the face of societal control and renders it hollow as a pipe. Everything from the stunt-work to the faceless actors are engineered to perfection, with little room for anything resembling the human condition to break through in this thoughtless slog of a remake.

Once again, our hero is Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey). Instead of starring at Ohio State, he’s an extreme sports enthusiast who quits dirt-biking and takes a job as an FBI agent (apparently hand tattoos don’t immediately disqualify you from working there). Working alongside Delroy Lindo, a better actor but one with far less bug-eyed mania in him than Gary Busey, he is tasked with investigating a pair of unusual heists in Mumbai and Mexico. In both instances, a trio of masked assailants combined extreme sports with high-level theft. In one instance, they drove motorcycles off of the upper floors of a skyscraper, and in another, they jumped out of a helicopter and parachuted precisely down a subterranean cave, all while letting hundreds of thousands of dollars rain down on impoverished locals below.

Utah opines that the perps are extreme sports athletes in what could be considered the “no shit” statement of the movie, and adds that their crimes are reminiscent of the Ozaki Eight, a crew of eight activists whose work was inspired by environmentalist Ozaki Ono to honor the Earth.

Nearly drowning in an attempt to learn surfing in France, Utah is rescued by Bodhi (Édgar Ramírez), who conveniently happens to be the ringleader of these socially conscious robbers and in time confirms his whole environmental activist theory. The two end up biking, surfing, snowboarding, and rock-climbing together, their fun only sporadically interrupted by Utah’s superior (Ray Winstone) bitching and moaning that he’s getting too close to Bodhi in the process. This film wouldn’t be complete without a miserably underdeveloped token love interest: enter Teresa Palmer as Samsara.

Core — who directed the Mark Wahlberg movie Invincible 10 years prior — admittedly knows how to capture stunts from various angles. You can find a detailed breakdown of each notable set-piece on Wikipedia. If every extended sequence was compiled together in a hypothetical film called something generic like “Into the Beyond: Daredevils Defying Death” and spat into IMAX theaters around the country, it would be a hell of a lot more justifiable than how they’re employed here. There’s reason to wonder if Core and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (also behind the worthless remake of Total Recall) even saw the original Point Break. If they did, one of their first moves might’ve been to tell Bracey and Ramirez not to look like they’re being held hostage. Bracey’s Utah couldn’t be more uninspired: his eyes hang low, his lips are pursed into a permanent frown, and he delivers dialog as if he’s hearing it for the first time via an earpiece. As for Ramirez? His Bodhi wouldn’t motivate me to take his suggestion for an entrée at a restaurant. How he managed to convince two other rooty-poots to follow his half-baked environmentalist screed by way of hurling expensive vehicles off of buildings and into parts unknown remains as big of a mystery as to how this movie got greenlit.

Crunchy rock music and an antiseptic color palette cleanse Point Break of any remnants of a personality. Bigelow’s movie found a way to capture the free spirit New Age beliefs of 90s youth. Core’s movie finds a way to bore the absolute hell out of you, all while oscillating between anger, frustration, and sometimes true contempt for what you’re enduring. Timmer’s script attempts to have characters address environmental issues proves to be skin-deep thanks to the lackluster individuals raising them. When the film was released on Christmas Day 2015, I remember looking the other way, for I hadn’t seen the original at that point. My mother and I saw David O. Russell’s Joy instead. Turns out, that Christmas could’ve started off significantly worse.

Hollywood is a lot like America. It’s an industry that demands experience from those looking to break into it; a proven track record of success and accomplishments. The problem, however, is you cannot obtain such experience if no one takes a chance on you. The same studio executives at Alcon, DMG, Erman, and Babelsberg who greenlit a remake of Point Break and authorized $105 million large are probably the same ones who sneered at a script or a pitch from a no-name writer requesting a couple million (if that) for their project. It’s been 11 years since Point Break hit theaters, and in 2026 alone, we’ve seen movies from young upstarts like Curry Barker and Kane Parsons make incredible coin at the box office. The movies were great too, might I add. Maybe the tide is turning. One can hope.

My review of Point Break (1991)

Starring: Luke Bracey, Édgar Ramírez, Teresa Palmer, Delroy Lindo, and Ray Winstone. Directed by: Ericson Core.