Speed

'Speed' has to be the ultimate action film, involving you in an intense experience from the opening credits until the smash-bang climax. Not only do Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock do top work, but Dennis Hopper makes the most compelling villain of the '90s.

It all starts with a revenge-driven extortionist letting authorities know he has planted a bomb on a bus. The catch is it will explode if the bus is driven at less than fifty miles an hour. The script races along with non-stop action and surprise twists, without ever giving the audience time to stop for breath. It's a little too intense for its own good and could have used some lighter moments to give us a break!

Taut and suspenseful, with excellent effects and gripping suspense that keeps you riveted. Some of the stunts seem too incredible to be believable but in a film of this kind you have to go with the flow. The stunt work itself is breathtaking and makes it easy to see why the film is one of the most highly rated action films of the '90s.

If ever there was a film I wished I had seen at the theater,this would be the one.It's a great combination of a well written story, great direction,and a great cast.It's one of those films that you want to like so much,and it does not disappoint.The only thing that bothered me about the film is perhaps is the insertion of ill timed corny remarks ("He lost his head"),and the ending could have been done better,but overall a great action film worth owning.

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.

Generic? Yup, Contrived? Of course, Fun? Absolutely! A brilliant first time Watch I can't lie, Fantastic all round performances and brilliantly tense action sequences there's not much wrong with this piece of film here and I can't recommend it enough, the original (and best) of over the top action ala 'The fast and the furious' franchise it's totally worth a watch, nothing but fun!

Speed is one of my favorite action movies of all time, just a notch below contemporaries like Terminator 2 and Die Hard. The premise is so simple that it's almost a parody of movie pitches (Homer Simpson's line was "I saw this movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode! I think it was called 'The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down'."). Fortunately this film came to be much better than the sum of its parts, and it's deservedly remembered as one of the most entertaining films of the 90s.

What distinguishes Speed is its humanity, due in no small part to the character of Annie (Sandra Bullock). The best example of this is the moment when Annie, while driving the bus, thinks she has struck a baby stroller. She becomes so distraught that she lets go of the steering wheel, never mind the fact that she is in charge of driving a bomb-laden bus through the L.A. suburbs. It's one of several moments that draw us into the film by helping us identify with the characters, and it's all the more elegant for its simplicity. This movie isn't complex, but it doesn't claim to be.

There is a certain irony that Speed succeeds so well on a human level, since Jan de Bont is not generally considered an "actor's director". He started as a cinematographer, and even when he talks about directing he discusses technical aspects and seldom mentions working with actors. Nowhere was this more evident than Speed 2, which pretty much killed his directorial career. Given that, it's all the more remarkable what he pulled off in the original Speed, as everything seemed to come together for him.

The overall performances really serve this picture well. Keanu is at his best (which is to say, mediocre), Sandra launched a career based on this movie, and Dennis Hopper did a wonderful job as the sardonic villain. Plus he has one of my favorite bad-guy lines of all time (Traven: "You're crazy." Payne: "Poor people are crazy, Jack. I'm eccentric.").

8/10