This aged just a bit better than I'd remembered, although admittedly I didn't have the fondest recollections of it. In essence it's a nonstop barrage of action clichés that doesn't try to step out of its own way, choosing instead to embrace the stereotypes and come up with a few new ones along the way. Keanu Reeves appears at his most wooden while Sandra Bullock is still finding her sea legs as an actress, but the two still manage some level of incalculable chemistry that makes you pull for them through thick and thin. In many ways, their relationship is a great analogy for the film as a whole - generic and ham-fisted, you've seen it a thousand times before but for some inexplicable reason you're still perched on the edge of your seat for the duration. Dennis Hopper is noteworthy as the preposterously over-the-top mad bomber; he serves up several great lines that sent me backwards through decades' worth of pop culture nostalgia.
Updated thought after a 2024 re-watch:
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock mash pedals and dodge traffic jams in this bomb-on-board blockbuster; an action ride so derivative, it was semi-affectionately dubbed "Die Hard on a bus" during production. The comparison is apt, except Reeves lacks the conviction or credibility of a peak Bruce Willis and the ancient LA-area commuter vehicle isn't as versatile a setting as the winding hallways and narrow air ducts of Nakatomi Plaza. At least Dennis Hopper compares favorably in this analogy, serving as an appropriately composed, vindictive (and sound bitey) foil to rival Alan Rickman's performance of a few years prior.
While he may not meet the standards of old John McClane, Reeves's determined SWAT officer shows heart and toughness despite his lack of personality, and I guess two out of three isn't so bad in that regard. His rapport with Bullock is essential, a cozy piece of human warmth that pushes the finished film beyond the scope of its limited screenplay. Each actor was destined for greater things, and in Speed they show flashes of the intangible magnetism that would eventually make them household names while still cutting their teeth as inexperienced big-budget centerpieces. They're vanilla but likable, and Hopper's scenery-chewing madman act is good enough to push the audience straight into their arms.
The premise of a fifteen-ton bus, wired to blow if it drops below 50mph, is simple and effective: a classic method to crank tension without explaining new rules along the way. Although we fudge a few details (no way it maintained such a pace while blasting through stalled traffic on a freeway exit), this is all in the name of good fun and our disbelief isn't nudged beyond the point of no return. We flirt with the line, but don't cross it, and that's good enough for a silly, concept-driven slab of blooming fireballs and spiked adrenaline. Light and silly, but effectively gripping and well-paced, Speed has aged better than a majority of its fluffy mid '90s contemporaries.
Bumped my rating from a 6 to a 7.
