Speed Kills

The worst movie I've ever seen. We laughed at it for its absurdity. Close ups of John Travolta smiling into the camera seemingly staring at his own reflection, multiple times, very creepy. Numerous boring long periods of him driving a boat and smiling, weird. Him with multiple women, not even believable. His hair looks awkwardly fake. Sluggishly slow. Torture.

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

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.

Where to start? I have my boat, so I know a thing or two, I lived in Miami in the 90s, so I kinda get whatever the movie wants to convey, Then I see Travolta falling in love with a fiberglass hull with twin V8s, haha. Next to that, the first race scene, with the boat shortcutting through the shallows? hahaha. I like Travolta´s sense of humor. This movie is one of his expensive jokes, and I am still trying to find the punchline. If I can finish watching it...