Little hand says it's time to rock and roll.

May 10, 2013 1:49 PM

Point Break, remade by ___________________.
posted by brundlefly (14 comments total)

I must be getting old...I only recognized Anderson and Lynch. I had hoped for Werner Herzog.
posted by jquinby at 2:02 PM on May 10, 2013

I didn't get a chance to see it, but Point Break Live sounded to me like the best thing:

Point Break LIVE! is the absurdist stage adaptation of the 1992 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze extreme-sports blockbuster that tells the story of former College football star, Johnny Utah, in pursuit of the surfing, bank robbing, skydiving, bare-hand-fighting adrenaline-junkie-cum-Zen-master Bodhi Sattva.

Point Break LIVE! features armed robbery, big-wave surfing, car chases, explosions, no less than two extended skydiving sequences and an indoor monsoon. This "action" play offers a true cathartic experience, putting you in the water with the surfers, throwing you out the door of an airplane and robbing you at gunpoint. Add in the hotness factor- surfer dudes and female stunt doubles and you have a night of live theater that rivals anything by Samuel Beckett in terms of pure excitement and energy.

The starring role of Johnny Utah is selected from the audience each night, and reads their entire script off of cue-cards. This method manages to capture the rawness of a Keanu Reeves performance even from those who generally think themselves incapable of acting. The fun starts immediately with the "screen test" wherein the volunteer Keanus (usually 5-15 men and women vie for the role) go through a grueling audition process. The part is then cast via applaus-o-meter.

Honestly, could that not be the best of all possible versions?
posted by mhoye at 2:04 PM on May 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

jquinby you're never too old for Tommy Wiseau.
posted by Doleful Creature at 2:19 PM on May 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

OK, the Tommy Wiseau joke may be really obvious, but godDAMN it's funny. "You want to throw de pigskin around? I bet you dooooooo! Ah ha ha ha ha!"
posted by DecemberBoy at 2:21 PM on May 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

I saw Point Break Live multiple times. It's pretty great, just a huge load of rowdy fun. The people behind it have moved on to Terminator 2, casting Arnold's role from the audience. Doesn't seem like it would be as fun.

I earnestly love this movie. These versions are fun and mostly spot on.
posted by dogwalker at 2:59 PM on May 10, 2013

Needs a Malick one though, with Bodhi waxing surf philosophy in a voiceover alongside beautiful shots of waves crashing, and surfers floating around.
posted by dogwalker at 3:06 PM on May 10, 2013

mhoye-- Point Break Live started in Seattle by some friends of my roommate. Back in '92 I went to one of the shows the second or third week in this tiny theater in Capitol Hill. Really funny stuff. We were in the front row and when the surfers came in to rob the bank they grabbed me and shoved me to the floor, pointing a gun at me and yelling "Don't move, motherfucker!" I played along and they left me and a few other people there for the whole five-minute scene.

They did the cuecard thing with Johnny Utah, but it wasn't really an audience member; it was some friend of one of the cast and they got him really trashed beforehand to add to the bad acting. I talked later with one of the creators (her name is Jamie something) and she promised I could be Keanu sometime but it never happened.

As for this: the Wes Anderson is spot on. Who is Joe Swanberg? Tommy Wisseau is not hard to emulate, but apparently David Lynch is.
posted by zardoz at 3:34 PM on May 10, 2013

I had to look up Joe Swanberg on IMDB, and I still have no idea who he is.
posted by ckape at 3:42 PM on May 10, 2013

are you sure that was 1992 and not 2002, zardoz?
posted by dogwalker at 4:27 PM on May 10, 2013

Ah, yes, '02 not '92.
posted by zardoz at 4:53 PM on May 10, 2013

I had to look up Joe Swanberg on IMDB, and I still have no idea who he is.

Same here. The only reason I recognized any of Swanberg's movies is because Netflix keeps recommending VHS to me because I occasionally watch '80s horror movies. I kind of got the sense that the parodists only had their heart in the Wes Anderson spoof, and all of the others were an afterthought.
posted by Strange Interlude at 4:57 PM on May 10, 2013

Doleful Creature: "jquinby you're never too old for Tommy Wiseau."

(watches trailer)

wat
posted by jquinby at 7:16 PM on May 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

DecemberBoy: "OK, the Tommy Wiseau joke may be really obvious, but godDAMN it's funny. "You want to throw de pigskin around? I bet you dooooooo! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

It's a testament to the greatness of Wiseau that everyone recognizes something as short and simple as "Oh, hi, <name>".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:11 PM on May 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Lynch one is like a dream sequence from Twin Peaks, I almost expected the log lady to show up.
posted by Coaticass at 11:14 PM on May 10, 2013