The film Speed is an action film which once the plot has been established simply races along. When you consider that the premise of the movie is that a bomb on a bus will blow up if the speed of the bus drops below 50mph then it has to hasn’t it.
The films stars Keanu Reeves as a cop Jack Traven and Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter who are those on the bus trying to avoid it exploding. The villain who is trying to extort money is played by Dennis Hopper. The number of times Hopper has played this role now he must be feeling typecast. Still I suppose it pays the mortgage.
Jan De Bont directed the film and his handling of the suspense, the action and the stunts is simply brilliant. In the final analysis this is one hell of a good film. Although the use of the minimum speed of the bus is an innovative twist it is still a twist on an often worked theme. The clock ticking down towards its conclusion and the immediate danger of their predicament are intertwined and we get regular shots of the buses speedometer to show how close they get. There is a huge amount of damage done as they shoot along the LA freeway before coming to a huge if implausible explosive finale. The closing train sequence is very well done but so are many of the other stunts of flying buses and crashes.
For Keanu Reeves it has to be one of his better films. Since the Bill and Ted days he has not quite lived up to that early stardom, though of course much better than Alex Winter has done. Reeves plays this character very well. Dennis Hopper plays his role with his usual high level of menace. Sandra Bullock is perhaps the weakest link here. She is only in it as a bit of female interest and pleasing on the eye she might be but her acting is wooden and contrived. Jeff Daniels appears as the police partner of Traven and he provides a good anchor for the maintenance of the action.
The real interest though is the action. At times the action is so realistic you feel part of the action, at times though it all seems like a video game where you surge from one crash to another.
The film has inevitably drawn parodies. For my review title I use the words of Homer Simpson who when trying to remember what this film was called says it about a speeding bus the speed of which cannot slow down or the speed will trigger a bomb. He then calls it The Bus That Cannot Slow Down. Another parody was in Father Ted when Father Dougal drives a milk float which will explode if it goes below 4mph and he ends up driving it continually round a roundabout.
Speed itself though is a very good action film. The pace of the direction and the acting are excellent and the stunts superbly done. A minor criticism would be the formulaic nature of the film in the way the action comes with metronomic regularity. A price to be paid for earning the epithet of action packed. Shame that the sequel was so bad.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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Great film - don't bother with the sequel though!
Good review
coleecip 12.11.2004 13:52
I think any film that is parodied and not laughed at is a sucess. I dispute the bus jumping a bit, but I think they made up for it in the characterisation of the passengers.
julietta 17.10.2001 21:27
Watchable but can be a bit too much at times - 'far fetched' is another expression I would use for it. Good op!
Everything clicked in this 1994 action hit, from the premise (a city bus has to keep ... more
moving at 50 mph or blow up) to the two leads (the usually inscrutable Keanu Reeves and the cute-as-a-button Sandra Bullock) to the villain (Dennis Hopper in psycho mo...
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Everything clicked in this 1994 action hit, from the premise (a city bus has to keep ... more
moving at 50 mph or blow up) to the two leads (the usually inscrutable Keanu Reeves and the cute-as-a-button Sandra Bullock) to the villain (Dennis Hopper in psycho mo...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 2 to 4 weeks...
Hold on tight for a rush of pulse pounding thrills, breathtaking stunts and unexpected ... more
romance in a film you'll want to see again and again. KEANU REAVES stars as Jack Traven, an L.A.P.D. SWAT team specialist who is sent to defuse a bomb that a revenge...
Hold on tight for a rush of pulse-pounding thrills breathtaking stunts and unexpected ... more
romance in a film you'll want to see again and again. Keanu Reeves stars as Jack Traven an LAPD Swat team specialist who is sent to defuse a bomb that a revenge-dri...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
![Speed [DVD] [1994]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78545125.jpg "Speed [DVD] [1994]")
Oct 17th, 2001
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