I Wrote About One of My Favorite Bad Movies for GQ
I keep trying to convince people to watch the 'Point Break' remake, so my editor let me record the whole treatise for posterity.
Welcome to The #Content Report, a newsletter by Vince Mancini. I’ve been writing about movies, culture, and food since the aughts. Now I’m delivering it straight to you, with none of the autoplay videos, takeover ads, or chumboxes of the ad-ruined internet. Support my work and help me bring back the cool internet by subscribing, sharing, commenting, and keeping it real.
—
TL; DR, I wrote about the Point Break remake (2015) for GQ, which you should go read right now.
It’s weird that 9-year-old medium flop that feels like no one I know saw would keep coming up lately, but that’s how it’s gone for me lately. If I had to point to two reasons why the Point Break remake is relevant again, I would say the first one is the trailer for the Road House remake hitting the internet recently. It’s impossible not to notice the parallels between the remake of Point Break and the remake of Road House, another beloved cult classic starring Patrick Swayze that I (and others) have written about at length. I actually wrote this review before that trailer hit, and the movie is set to hit Prime in a few weeks, so it was kismet.
The other is that the Point Break remake was written by Kurt Wimmer, the same guy who wrote the recent hit Jason Statham vehicle The Beekeeper (my review; our podcast about it). Wimmer also wrote Equilibrium and Ultraviolet, along with other forgotten remakes of 90s classics like Total Recall and Children of the Corn. It is my firm belief that Kurt Wimmer is one of the all-time great himbo screenwriters and possibly deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of existential buffoons. The Point Break remake is as good an introduction to the Wimmer ouvre as any, and a movie that I genuinely love.
My editor at GQ saw a tweet I did about it and asked if I wanted to elaborate, and 2,000 words just poured out of me. When I quoted the line in which new Johnny Utah explains why he’s called Johnny Utah, he couldn’t believe I hadn’t made it up.
My mom was a Ute Indian. That's why they call me "Utah." Means "mountain people." Maybe that's why I was so good on the slopes.
It’s so good, man.
You made me watch that pile when it came out and I'll be damned if that GQ piece didn't make me want to re watch it. This is bordering on an abusive relationship, Mancini.
"Bodhi doesn’t actually kill anyone, unless you count the members of his gang—named, incredibly, Chowder, Roach, Grommet, and Jeff—who die one by one in the process of completing all of Ozaki’s stunts."
Come ON. Jeff!?