Escape finals week burnout with Video Picks

It's the last week, people. Some teachers keep a glint in their eye, kind of like Clint Eastwood's death stare. Some students return the look. The knowledge showdown is on. It's finals time.

Everyone knows that "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy," and in that spirit, Video Picks are once again here to save burned out, overworked students. Read on, oh great studious types of Cal State Long Beach!

"Point Break" offers students a look at what it's like to be a pot smoking, bank robbing surfer in search of the ultimate score and wave. Gary Busey, Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze make up the cast in this plot twisting film.

Busey is a burned out FBI agent who is certain he knows who is pulling off the big bank robberies in town. Reeves is a green, excitable new agent willing to try anything. Together they follow up a hunch that the bank robbers are surfers and try to assimilate into the underworld of the surf culture.

Swayze is the top dog of the surfers and the prime suspect in the investigation. However, he's smart and proves to be quite a match for Reeves. The movie is a constant mental chess match between them. An overall great movie, with impossible stunts and even more ridiculous foot chases that seem to go on forever, it makes for an escape from finals.

Another finals escape can be watching "Sleepless in Seattle," which is more of an emotional release than a physical one like "Point Break." Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and Rosie O'Donnell make up the main players in the slightly tweaked version of the 1957 Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr film "An Affair to Remember." The trio take a movie that could have been a heavy-hearted tearjerker and turn it into a light-hearted tearjerker.

The beginning of the film makes it seem as if it's going to be nothing more than another sad, long, drawn-out movie about death and the hereafter for the living. The audience is tricked into believing that the film is just that, a dark look at a widower's life. It isn't until Ryan hits the scene with her happy-go-lucky ways that the film literally lights up.

The film is unfortunately seen by many as a chick flick. It's actually one of the rare emotional movies that transcends gender lines and can be fulfilling for both boys and girls. It's especially good for a quiet evening with the one you love, or are trying to love.

The film is a masterpiece at dovetailing humor and tragedy and chance all at once, making it the film that most anyone can enjoy.