Editing Point Break (section)

===Critical response===
On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Absurd, over-the-top, and often wildly entertaining, ''Point Break'' is here to show you that the human spirit is still alive."<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/point_break/ | title=Point Break (1991) | work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] | access-date=November 21, 2024}}</ref> [[Metacritic]] reports a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/point-break-1991 | title=Point Break reviews | work=[[Metacritic]] | access-date=December 25, 2015}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= Cinemascore |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 2018-12-20}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote: "Bigelow is an interesting director for this material. She is interested in the ways her characters live dangerously for philosophical reasons. They aren't men of action, but men of thought who choose action as a way of expressing their beliefs."<ref name="ebert">{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Point Break |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=July 12, 1991 |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/point-break-1991 |access-date=2018-08-25}}</ref> In her review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Janet Maslin]] praised Reeves's performance: "A lot of the snap comes, surprisingly, from Mr. Reeves, who displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanor that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles."<ref name="maslin">{{cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |title=Surf's Up For F.B.I. In Bigelow's 'Point Break' |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=C00012 |edition=National |date=July 12, 1991 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/12/movies/review-film-surf-s-up-for-fbi-in-bigelow-s-point-break.html |access-date=2018-08-25 }}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the film a "C+" rating and [[Owen Gleiberman]] wrote: "''Point Break'' makes those of us who don't spend our lives searching for the ultimate physical rush feel like second-class citizens. The film turns reckless athletic valor into a new form of aristocracy."<ref name="gleiberman">{{cite magazine | last = Gleiberman | first = Owen | title = ''Point Break'' | magazine = [[Entertainment Weekly]] | date = July 26, 1991 | url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,314916,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070324154714/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,314916,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = March 24, 2007 | access-date = 2009-04-24}}</ref>

In his review for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', Hal Hinson wrote: "A lot of what Bigelow puts up on the screen bypasses the brain altogether, plugging directly into our viscera, our gut. The surfing scenes in particular are majestically powerful, even awe-inspiring. Bigelow's picture is a feast for the eyes, but we watch movies with more than our eyes. She seduces us, then asks us to be bimbos."<ref name="hinson">{{cite news | last = Hinson | first = Hal | title = ''Point Break'' | newspaper = [[The Washington Post]] | date = July 12, 1991 | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/pointbreakrhinson_a13f81.htm | access-date = 2009-04-24 }}</ref> ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine's [[Peter Travers]] wrote: "Bigelow can't keep the film from drowning in a sea of surf-speak. But without her, ''Point Break'' would be no more than an excuse to ogle pretty boys in wet suits."<ref name="travers">{{cite news | last = Travers | first = Peter | title = ''Point Break'' | newspaper = [[The Washington Post]] | date = April 11, 2001 | url = https://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947465/review/5947466/point_break | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071024044945/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947465/review/5947466/point_break | url-status = dead | archive-date = October 24, 2007 | access-date = 2009-04-24}}</ref>

''[[USA Today]]'' gave the film two out of four stars, and Mike Clark wrote: "Its purely visceral material (surf sounds, skydiving stunt work, a tough indoor shootout midway through) are first-rate. As for the tangibles that matter even more (script, acting, directorial control, credible relationships between characters), Break defies belief. Dramatically, it rivals the lowest surf yet this year."<ref name="clark">{{cite news | last = Clark | first = Mike | title = ''Point Break'' is a dramatic wipeout | work = [[USA Today]] | date = July 12, 1991 }}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's Richard Corliss wrote: "So how do you rate a stunningly made film whose plot buys so blithely into macho mysticism that it threatens to turn into an endless bummer? Looks 10, Brains 3."<ref name="corliss">{{cite magazine | last = Corliss | first = Richard | title = Cinema | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = July 22, 1991 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973430,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101122021458/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973430,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 22, 2010 | access-date = 2009-04-24}}</ref>

Critics have commented on the central 'buddy' relationship of Bodhi and Johnny,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/point-break-2015/keanu-reeves-kathryn-bigelow-making-of-original/|title=Tough guys have feelings too: the power of Point Break|date=2016-02-02|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2020-03-23|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235|quote=In a promotional interview, Swayze described the film as being miles from "slap-ass, macho, jokey crap…I wanted to play it like a love story between two men.}}</ref> and on the unusually equal dynamic in the romantic relationship of Tyler and Johnny (which Bigelow changed Peter Iliff's original script to create); Tyler is a "muscled, brash waitress with an androgynous name (Tyler) and physical features", and Johnny's "feminine edges nudge in nicely to her masculine ones. In nearly every scene they share, they are portrayed by the camera as equals."<ref name="rollingstone1">{{cite magazine|last=Wolfe |first=April |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/stream-this-movie-point-break-717570/ |title=Revisiting Hours: 'Point Break'|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=2018-08-31 |access-date=2018-12-18}}</ref>

In 2006, a special edition was released on DVD—the original DVD was released on May 22, 2001. ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave it a "B" rating and wrote: "The making-of docs (at their best discussing Swayze's extracurricular skydiving—that really is him doing the ''Adios, amigo'' fall) will leave you hanging."<ref name="bierly">{{cite magazine | last = Bierly | first = Mandi | title = DVD Review: ''Point Break'' | magazine = [[Entertainment Weekly]] | date = September 29, 2006 | url = https://ew.com/article/2006/09/29/point-break/ | access-date = 2009-04-24 }}</ref>

In 2021, Keith Duggan, reflecting on ''Point Break'' 30 years later, wrote in the ''Irish Times'': 
{{blockquote|For more than any other film of that time, ''Point Break'' seemed to announce what lay ahead in the grungy, baggy, anything goes 1990s, with greed and anti-capitalist forces clashing, America emitting its last lion’s roar of unfettered optimism and the quest for one’s precious spirit moving from the remnants of the hippy era into a multi-billion health and spirituality industry...Yup, standing on a stormy beach in 1991, old Bodhi had a pretty clear view of the next three decades.<ref>{{cite news | last=Duggan | first=Keith | title=Point Break still riding the wave of time at 30 | newspaper=The Irish Times | date=January 30, 2021 | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/daft-exhilarating-iconic-point-break-still-riding-the-wave-of-time-at-30-1.4471155 | access-date=March 22, 2024}}</ref>}}