Speed (1994)

Everything clicked in this 1994 action hit, from the premise (a city bus has to keep 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 mode) to the director (Jan De Bont, who made this film hit the ground running with an edge-of-your-seat opening sequence on a broken elevator). This is the sort of movie that becomes a prototype for a thousand lesser films (including De Bont's lousy sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control), but Speed really is a one-of-a-kind experience almost anyone can enjoy. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

STEP ON THE BUS AND LEAVE YOUR BRAIN AT THE DOOR!

If ever there was a film that doesn't apologize for being "Hollywood" .....'Speed' has got to be it. This movie delivers action, action and more action to the point of absurdity, but it's a lot of fun. Hopper gives his usual wacko performance once again and Bullock is her usual cute self. Reeves fills in the "hero" shoes fine, but it's the "just one more over the top situation" that makes this film too much! Get the largest bowl in your house and fill it till it spills over with popcorn and enjoy.......don't forget to leave your brain at the door! The DVD transfer looks good, but it's a pretty basic release. September 22, 2008

An adrenaline pumped ride

Speed is kind of like Die Hard on wheels. In both films there is a hostage situation, while a madman demands money or else people are going to die. The cast, acting, dialouge and story are not as sharp in Speed as Die Hard IMHO, but what makes Speed uniqely different is that the entire movie isn't focused into a single structure. Instead, we are on a Los Angeles public bus that cannot travel under 50 mph or else the bomb underneath will detonate. The stage is therefore set for non-stop speeding thrills and suspense.

The movie has 3 main stages. The majority of the film is the bus, but before that begins the film starts off immediately with an introduction to our villain Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper), an ex-cop who places a bomb in a tower elevator and the L.A. officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) sent to neautralize the bomb and rescue the hostages caught in the elevator. While it does provide the film with an instant scene of suspense, it's nearly 30 minutes in length and after a few viewings of Speed, I am more than ready for our bus scene.

The next hour of the film is the bus. Payne has planted a bomb underneath, and racing down the L.A. freeway comes the bus, and anything in its path better be ready to duck, jump, or get run over. An unfortunate accident on board places an every day young woman named Annie (Sandra Bullock) in the driver's seat, while officer Jack jumps on board to do his best to control the situation. But Payne is one smart bombmaker, and almost every scenario is pre-thought out leaving Jack with little time to come up with a plan. Meanwhile the bus has until 11am, or Payne receives his money, before it blows.

The final scene is a little unnecessary but set up to take control of our villain once and for all. This scene takes place on the subway, in an abondoned subway car that is speeding out of control. After a wild ride for an hour or so on the bus, the subway scene is little exciting, and like I said, feels like it was thrown in the mix just to wrap things up.

Overall, Speed succeeds by providing great action and thrills that almost never let up. There are moments when I felt I was one of those every day passengers on that bus. But then when I listen to dialouge and some rough acting by the majority of the supporting cast, I remember its just a movie. Nevertheless, Speed is original and effective for what it is. It is a classic in its own right.

Acting - 3.5
Action - 4.5
Characters - 3.5
Story - 3.5
Overall - 4
September 21, 2008

A Great Thrill Ride Of An Action Movie

One of the most legendary of action movies (and deservedly so) "Speed" is a full-octane thrill ride bolstered by great performances and an unusually potent level of character interaction. In revenge for the foiling of his plot to hold an elevatorful of hostages for ransom, a maniacal villain (Dennis Hopper) targets one of the cops who stopped him (Keanu Reeves) by launching a plot that makes him responsible for saving a busload of civillians. With the bus wired with a bomb that will detonate if its speed drops below fifty miles an hour - intentionally making Reeves's attempt to board and save it a suicide bid - Hopper demands another ransom, thus going after revenge and profit in the same gambit.

As in most of the best action movies, the deck is really stacked against the movie's protagonist. The bus can't slow down, it can't stop at red lights, it can't be refueled, and it's forbidden for anyone to try to leave the bus: with helicopter news crews capturing the whole thing live, Hopper can monitor events at leisure from his hideout. Sandra Bullock plays Annie, a girl who ends up driving the bus after its original driver is incapacitated early on, and the great chemistry between her and Reeves is a big plus in the movie (that chemistry worked again a few years later in The Lake House (Widescreen Edition)). Actually, the interactions among everyone on the bus play off very well and believable. "Speed" features some of the more innovative action sequences for this kind of movie and succeeds in creating a good rush with them. A film that compares well with the best "Die Hard"s and the first Lethal Weapon (Director's Cut), this is, needless to say, an essential for action fans, as well as one that even those who rarely go for the action movie should check out. July 30, 2008

So Which One Is Wylie Coyote

After the first 30 minutes of non-stop action and hair-raising close calls with little or no dialog-- about the time the super-charged bus made a death-defyimg leap across a freeway chasm-- I figured there had to be a pause coming up. You know the old-fashioned type movie-making when the audience gets a chance to catch its breath and anticipate the action to come. Maybe even a few minutes of human interest. But that pause never came. Then after the second 30 minutes of non-stop action and hair-raising close calls-- about the time the bus blows up the airplane real good-- I figured the pause had to come. But no, it never did. Instead, there was another 30 minutes of non-stop action and hair-raising close calls, and about the time the subway began to get a mind of its own, something really strange happened. I realized I had gotten bored. Now you wouldn't think that with all that non-stop action and hair-raising close calls, a viewer could actually get bored. But I was. Something, I think, about too much of one thing becoming first familiar, then old, and finally tedious. Then when the non-stop action and hair-raising close calls finally did come to a stop, as all things must, I had my final revelation. What I had just sat through only looked like a real life movie. But it wasn't. Not really. Instead it was only a cartoon version of non-stop action and hair-raising close-calls with human versions of those familiar characters the Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote. Unfortunately, the money I spent was not cartoon money. May 5, 2008

Speed

This is one of those rare action/suspense movies that will far surpass your expectations. You will be on the edge of your seat a lot because the suspense build up is done that well. The cast is what impressed me the most. I knew what to expect with the Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves pairing, but the supporting characters were a surprise as they were outstanding. Jeff Daniels is always wonderful on screen. Dennis Hopper was great as the lunatic holding them hostage.
April 3, 2008

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