Rookie FBI Agent Johnny Utah (yes) is paired up with veteran Agent Angelo Pappas (double yes) on the case of the Ex-Presidents, a gang of bank robbers who commit their crimes in masks of, well, former Presidents. Despite the silliness of their schtick, the Ex-Presidents are the best bank robbers on the scene and have evaded police for some time. Pappas has a hunch that the robbers are surfers (CCTV footage of tan lines and lab results of board wax…lol), so Agent Utah is tasked with learning to surf and infiltrating the surfer scene. He’s guided by love interest Tyler and crazy surf guru Bodhi, who together teach him about surfing and about himself. When the FBI agents follow their gut and move against a different, drug-dealing surf gang, Utah begins to suspect that his new surf friends are more presidential than they originally seemed.
I didn’t expect to like this film as much as I did. Over the years, it seems to have become a parody of itself, representing a certain kind of incredulous ‘90s action film (“he’s a cop—but he’s a surfer”). I think a great deal of the typical Keanu-“impression” comes out of this film (and Bill and Ted), but it makes more sense now that I know he is literally portraying a surfer. Sort of. I think the story kind of comes off the rails by act three. One, for suspending disbelief. Like, I was willing to go along with “surfing cop”, but “surfing cop who gets dragged into jumping out of a plane as the first step in a blackmail criminal insurance policy” starts to stretch me out a bit. And then, the film is weird in how it starts as an odd-couple, buddy-cop film, before it drops the Keanu-Busey relationship in favor of the Keanu-Swayze frienimy-bromance. So much so that when Busey drops in the film, the film just drops him all together. It’s wild.
And yet, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I shouldn’t, but I did. It was super entertaining, super well shot, super dramatic, and super silly. It’s in this camp of, “I wouldn’t say it’s a great film, but if it were on TV I would totally stop flipping through channels and watch it until the commercial break.” I’m here for it!