Riptide (Sin City) Review

Reviewed by andyblake  on  3/20/2005

This Michael Raven-helmed film is a porn version of "Point Break" which starred Patrick Swayze as the leader of a gang of outlaw surfers, and Keanu Reeves, as the FBI agent assigned to bring him to justice. Although the premise is promising, the execution is execrable. Nobody in this thing can surf, and nobody can act, either. The only decent surf footage is on the menu. They didn't even go out to places in Orange County or Malibu, where people actually surf, and get some shots of people actually surfing. Instead, they shot the surf scenes in the bay, where the two foot waves break on the sand. Incredibly lame!! This is why people hate porn with plot. A good surfing porno is still waiting to be made, because this wasn't it.

The sex scenes are just so-so, with the exception of one three-way with April, Randy Spears, and Pat Myne, which is pretty hot. There ain't nobody in the porn version as sexy as Lori Petty was in the mainstream original.

The technical aspects are terrific, with excellent cinematography. The picture and sound are very good, and the movie is presented in widescreen format. Sin City has ladeled on the extras. There is a director's commentary, photos, a behind the scenes featurettes, cast bios, cast interviews, ect. In fact, this is a two-disk set--they had to add a second disk to house all the extras. But the outstanding technical aspects and the great package of extras do not make up for the fact that the movie itself is just barely average. Some other folks, like Nic Andrews and Brad Armstrong, have raised the bar of plot-based porn pretty high, and this film just doesn't meet that standard.