If you want the ultimate thrill, you’ve got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. This much we know, thanks to an extremely extreme Patrick Swayze in 1991’s Point Break. But then the Bodhizafa died in a massive “Bells Beach” lefthander during the “50 Year Storm,” and these days Pat Swayze is busy battling pancreatic cancer. So how is it that Bali surfers are suddenly responding to a casting call for extras in a highly anticipated sequel to our favorite surf movie to make fun of?
“I’ve heard they’re supposed to be shooting almost the whole movie in Bali,” says local kingpin Rizal Tanjung, who’s always near the top of any rumor mill foodchain. “And they’ve already been looking around for some people to play the surfers. Beyond that though, seems like they’re keeping tight wraps on things.”
I think most surfers have a fairly personal, love/hate relationship with the original Point Break movie. Before Point Break came out, everything I’d done was for other people. In high school I played football cause my old man expect me to. Then my parents figure I’d go to law school. Football scholarship. Phi Beta Kappa. I’m a big hero to my folks, right? But two year ago they were killed in a car wreck. You can’t imagine how your whole life changes. So I wanted something for myself. I came out here and I saw the ocean for the first time. I never thought it would affect me so much. I’m drawn to it. Or something.
That Keanu Reeves can sure deliver some awkwardly memorable lines. There’s an excellent bit of Bill and Ted in everything does. For last year’s theatrical mockuduction “Point Break Live!” — the Rocky Horror-style theater reproduction of the movie — a random member of the audience was picked out to deliver Johnny Utah’s lines on the theory even some nobody can’t do worse than Keanu. Right?
Earlier this year, the original film’s “young-dumb-and-full-of-come” writer Peter Iliff announced that his sequel had been given the green light, which would also be his directorial debut (oops, that’s now gone to Speed and Twister director Jan do Bont — you can see the Oscar nominations already, right?). He also said that the film would follow the adventures of Bodhi, and not Keanu. With no Johnny Utah, Point Break Indo (working title) will follow Billy Dalton, an ex-pro surfer turned Navy SEAL, who is recruited to infiltrate a criminal gang in Southeast Asia led by “one radical son of a bitch,” the notorious Bodhi, and his new Ex-Presidents, now called “The Bush Administation.”
Twenty years later, is this all too late? Pappas is dead. Johnny Utah has conquered The Matrix (not to mention The Lake House). And Swayze is out of the closet (oh wait, he’s not? Sorry. Take that back.) I mean, fear causes hesitation and hesitation causes your worst fears to come true? It’s basic dog psychology. If you scare them and get them peeing down their leg, they submit. But if you project weakness, that promotes violence, and that's how people get hurt. Does the world need another Point Break?
“All I did was tell them on camera that I’d been surfing for 20 years,” says Bali local John Balkowski, who showed up with along with locals surfers like Garut Widiarta to share some surfing experiences as an on-camera screen test. “The casting agency just called back and asked if I could ride Jet Ski, so maybe that’s a good sign.”
One way or the other, shooting for Point Break Indo begins in March and is slated for a Fall 2009 release. So the only question that remains: Is it too early to start making fun of it? Or to start secretly loving it? Well, if you’ll simply type “Point Break 2” into the Google Blog-osphere, clearly, it’s not.
Well, this is stimulating, but I’m outta here. Little hand says it’s time to rock and roll.