Point Break Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We love it when our heroes fall for the suspicious types: the wolves in sheep's clothing, the dangerous femme fatales. It happens often in film noir and a heckuva lot in comics, and provides some of the best last-act twists and turns as our hearts palpitate along with those of our protagonists... up until the bitter end. Can't that evil love interest turn out to have a heart of gold, so we can all have a happily ever after? Sometimes, yes. Most of the time, no.

What is it about these doomed romances that we love so much? Perhaps it's the futility of it all; you can't have your cake and eat it when you're a superhero or a (wo)man on a mission to right wrongs, even if you'd rather be kissing that beguiling bad guy than fighting them, arresting them, or foiling their evil plans. Turning down a chance at love is the ultimate sacrifice for a hero or heroine to make -- it proves their commitment to the side of good. Hence, loving a villain makes a hero even more heroic. How tragic!

In what will surely spur controversy, I've whittled my favorite villain-hero romances down to the seven best pairings in cinema. No, Phantom of the Opera didn't make it. That would have been too easy. Instead, find odd couples, would-be perfect pairs, star-crossed lovers, and yes, the world's most legendary bromance after the jump.

June is here, and summer has more or less begun, even if we have to wait until June 21 for the official start date. I'm here in the Bay Area, under a blanket of fog, wearing a sweater (if you saw last year's wonderful Colma: The Musical, you'll get a visual) while everywhere else people are sunbathing and drinking frosty frappuccinos. No matter. I've spent many summers like this and I have my share of fond summer memories even if they happened in the freezing cold rather than the relaxing heat. I was just remembering back to my first summer here. I had a pretty laid-back, part-time job that allowed me to go to as many movies as I wanted. So this week I thought I would do a flashback to the summer of 1991. (Imagine a pre-Tarantino world!) Things started well with the 50th anniversary re-release of Citizen Kane, and although I'd seen it many times before (and since) I got to see it on the big screen for the first time.

Next up came the documentary Truth or Dare. I wasn't a particularly big Madonna fan, but there was one scene that made the movie an event. Warren Beatty (then dating Madonna) turns up in her dressing room and is nonplussed about the intruding cameras: "She doesn't want to live off-camera, much less talk. There's nothing to say off-camera. Why would you say something if it's off-camera? What point is there existing?" Little did we know that those words would come to define our country and culture in the 21st century.

Warning: Video above contains foul language

It came as a shock in March to find out that Patrick Swayze was battling pancreatic cancer. Since then, there have been a lot of conflicting rumors and reports about his health, but now one is movie-related. Cinema Blend came across a news piece on Asian News International that Swayze would like to return to the sequel of Point Break, "if his health allows."

This comes on the heels of news that a sequel was on the way, so this could definitely be an example of wishful thinking. And hey, rumors that suggest the possibility of health, rather than death, are okay in my book. That being said, I don't think Point Break 2 is the next film I'd like to see Swayze in. If he's able to beat the cancer and get back to work, I'd love to see him cast in something that brings back the glory days of Swayze. We don't need questionable sequels; we need full-on and awesome Swayze.

Any ideas? What could bring Swayze back to form? Or, is a sequel of the gem above what the moviegoing world needs?

Back when Pulp Fiction came out, Quentin Tarantino began publishing lists of his favorite movies in various interviews. To a film buff, these were something of a small revelation. Tarantino had not been so much influenced by the usual Citizen Kane or Hitchcock as he was by a plethora of semi-forgotten, underappreciated trash movies. Suddenly movies like Brian De Palma's Blow Out (1981), Jack Hill's Coffy (1973) and Jim McBride's remake of Breathless (1983) gained in respectability; they had influenced a new American classic, and so there must be hidden greatness within their second-rate frames. Likewise, Tarantino helped breathe new life into already established classics like Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940) and Jean-Luc Godard's Band of Outsiders (1964). He created a film-buff smorgasbord.

Flash forward 13 years to 2007. Tarantino has a new movie out, the bottom half of Grindhouse, in which he sings the praises of a cult road movie called Vanishing Point (1971) among other titles. And yet, for some reason, I had absolutely no urge to rent that movie when Grindhouse had finished up. Perhaps it's because Tarantino's passion had turned into something a little more dutiful. Rather, my cinematic slaverings had turned elsewhere, to a relative newcomer that had been recently initiated into the Tarantino camp with the inclusion of his Grindhouse trailer: Edgar Wright. His exciting, hilarious, and enthusiastic Hot Fuzz (164 screens) had got me thinking about the veiled merits of its buddy cop double bill: Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break (1991) and Michael Bay's Bad Boys II (2003).

And now I present you with the day's most awesomest story: Peter Iliff will write and direct a Point Break 2! Ever since watching Hot Fuzz last month, I couldn't help but began craving more Point Break. Though it's been a whopping 16 years since the original arrived in theaters (wow, I feel old), Iliff, who was anxious to move from writing to directing, decided the best way to do so would be to use the sequel to his very first script as his directorial debut. While in Singapore scouting locations, Iliff talked up the long-awaited sequel admitting that "there was some worry that re-visiting the characters I wrote back in 1987 would infuriate fans of the original chapter." Nah, I dig it -- my only concern is that Patrick Swayze might be a bit too old to kick some serious ass.

In the original, Keanu Reeves played a law enforcement agent who goes undercover as a surfer dude in an attempt to expose a gang of bank robbers, led by that hunk from Dirty Dancing. The film itself felt long (even though it was only 2 hours), but some of the action sequences (tell me you don't love that skydiving scene toward the end) rocked. For the sequel (which will be produced by the Singapore-based company RGM films for roughly $30 million), Iliff says it will pick up with Bodhi (Swayze's character) on the run and hiding out in South-east Asia. Yeah, I didn't think that stupid wave killed him at the end of the last one either. As far as Reeves and Swayze go, Iliff says they've been contacted, but there's no word on whether they'll star; as of now, the plan is to cast Asian actors in the main roles. Hey, I'm fine with that, so long as Bodhi doesn't all of a sudden become Asian. That would be odd. Supposedly, Point Break 2 will be released toward the end of next year.

Director (and former Mrs. Jim Cameron) Kathryn Bigelow has had a rather uneven career in her twenty-odd years in Hollywood, but always managed to keep working and bring some pretty interesting projects to the screen. Now, according to Production Weekly, she is setting her sites on the Iraq war with her newly announced film, The Hurt Locker.

The film, which Bigelow co-wrote with war reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, tells the story of an elite bomb disposal unit and its exploits during the gulf war. This is not completely new territory for Bigelow, having directed other testosterone-heavy projects like Point Break, with Patrick Swayze and a pre-Neo Keanu Reeves, K-19: The Widowmaker, with Harrison Ford and Peter Sarsgaard and the near-perfect Near Dark with Bill Paxton and Lance Henricksen. These past films should give her a pretty good handle on what it takes to tackle this latest story.

The Hurt Locker has already begun pre-production with shooting scheduled to start in March. No word yet on a release date or cast but, as always, I'm going to make some suggestions: Let's get Bigelow vets Patrick Swayze, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton together to fill key roles in this project. I think they would make part of a pretty kick-ass bomb disposal team.

Think about it: Henriksen as the grizzled veteran who's seen it all, Swayze as the guy on the edge with only a few days left before he can go home to his family and Paxton as the guy who's wound just a little-too-tight for bomb disposal. Throw in a few young up-and-comers like Emile Hirsch and/or Chad Michael Murry and you might have something there. Sadly, from the description of the movie, it doesn't sound like there's a role for Jenette Goldstein in there anywhere, but I can hope. What do you think of my casting ideas?