Speed Kills

This is a bizarre movie. It starts out with crazy intensity between Old John Travolta and Old Other Guy who ends up standing menacingly by his truck just staring at him.

Then it goes back in time. Travolta is in trouble with the mob and has to get his family out of town. So he goes to Florida and... immediately gets super involved in speedboat racing for some reason? People watching and clapping and him getting hooked right away are kind of ridiculous, especially if Travolta's supposed to be on the run - why enter and win a bunch of boat races and get that kind of attention?

But I guess it's OK because this hood fresh in town gets the OK from Meyer Lansky himself, for some reason.

Lots more pointless boat racing. He cheats on his wife for like a decade and she knows but does nothing about it I guess. His son goes in the hospital while he's off winning one of his races. His boat racing gets in the way of his mob duties and Meyer gets mad at him.

It's so bizarre and Travolta LOOKS so bizarre in his various ages in this movie but it at least kept our attention. Until we turned it off.

You could watch this movie on mute and it would be just as watchable. Ok, first things first it looks like john travolta is wearing a john travolta mask. The movie starts with white old Urkel wanting to buy a boat then it gets weird and not the good kind of weird you know what I'm talking about. This movie will make you laugh and not because it is funny but because it is so terrible.

This film is based on the true story of Don Aronow (changed to Ben Aronoff in this film), of which I've never heard of until after seeing this film. At first I thought "why John Travolta?" but after Googling Donald Aronow, I see the uncanny resemblance.

I'm a fan of films based on true stories, and I enjoyed learning something new, especially about the beginnings of the cigarette boat racing industry.

Where this film failed miserably was in hiring amateur director Jodi Scurfield of whom this is his?/her? first ever film directed. Why? Was Jodi one of the 25+ executive producers significant other or child?

This films editing was one of the worst I've seen in a while. Then there's the writing; you would think at least one of the five writers could have re-read the screenplay and see how hacked it was. The were many jumpy plot issues and omissions. I feel certain scenes needed more relevance to what was happening or how/why they happened.

The 102 min length felt much longer due to the slow pacing contributed by the bad editing and sloppy directing. The SFX during the storm was 1980's technology. The cinematography was adequate, as was the score.

The cast however all provided decent performances, considering the director probably had no input during scenes of their performances. It showed from the flat and unconvincing relationships of Travolta's two wives and children.

I'm disappointed that of the 25+ producers, no one made the effort to hire professional filmmakers to make this film way better. This story had much potential.

I know this film will get bad ratings due to all the negative reasons I've stated above, but oddly enough, I still enjoyed it and liked learning something new and interesting from this film's base of a true story. If you can look past the flaws, you might enjoy it as well. A generous 6/10 from me, only for the base story and the cast's performances.

But I've seen so many bad movies, if I even see some resemblance of something good, I guess I am satisfied to a degree. And I'm not talking about the good looking female actors who got cast here, I mean certain plot points and whatever was made of something that is if I understood correctly, based on a true story and true characters.

Some very fine actors turn up in this, some a bit over the top and certain things feel like they are planted but no one gets near to ... well reap whatever that might have suggested. Still there is enough suspense even in the phoned in performances ... just don't expect too much from it

Actually was intrigued by the idea for the story, not an original one but intriguing, and have nothing against John Travolta, though it has been a while since he has given a good performance or made a good film. No bias or bigotry against him and his personal life and choices have absolutely no bearing on my opinions of his performances and films (that has never been the case for anybody or any film) and never have done.

'Speed Kills' just didn't work on most levels for me and most people it seems, and this is being said with regret not malice. It is another one of those films that is not irredeemably bad and there is always a real conscious effort to see the good in the bad. 'Speed Kills' though is also another film that has its good points far outweighed by the bad things, there is little good here and the flaws are big rather than marginal.

The scenery was quite nice, but that is pretty much the only praise that could be given from personal opinion.

None of the performances work, in general the acting had a very under-rehearsed vibe while Travolta over-compensates in his role with some off-putting facial expressions that border on unintentionally funny. None of the characters are remotely interesting, little more than undeveloped stereotypes with little personality, very flat character relationships, no interesting or distinct character traits and irritating ways of behaving and decision-making. The direction felt practically non-existent.

Other than the scenery, the production values lack slickness and look rather drab and like they were made in haste. A feeling most betrayed by some very haphazard editing that lacks any kind of organisation. The soundtrack is unmemorable at best and the script is so cheesy watching it with a straight face is impossible and that is when it is comprehensible.

From a story, structure and pace point of view, 'Speed Kills' is a mess. There is no excitement, let alone tension or suspense whatsoever. Structurally, the story just jumps about and constantly feels like there are parts missing that were meant to be there, so the flow is always choppy. And the pace is very pedestrian with many parts dragging, making a film that wasn't that long feel twice as long to the extent it felt there was nowhere near enough story to sustain the length.

All in all, the scenery aside a poorly done film. 2/10 Bethany Cox