Action / Adventure / Crime / Thriller
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Keywords: bomb airport bus bus ride highway bomb planting
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When a young Los Angeles police department, Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) officer called Jack Traven angers retired Atlanta police department bomb squad member Howard Payne, by foiling his attempt at taking hostages stuck in an elevator with a bomb, Payne in retaliation arms a bus with a bomb that will explode if it drops below 50 miles per hour. With the help of spunky passenger Annie, Jack and his partner Detective Harry Temple try to save the people on the bus before the bomb goes off, while also trying to figure out how Payne is monitoring them.—Jwelch5742
Jan de Bont
Keanu Reeves as Jack Traven
Sandra Bullock as Annie
Richard Schiff as Train Driver
Alan Ruck as Stephens
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Reviewed by smatysia 7 / 10
Enough action for three movies
Enough action sequences for three movies. Sandra Bullock has the cuteness controls set on HIGH, and Keanu Reeves plays it straight, a lot like his part in "Point Break". Dennis Hopper is, of course, one of the most believably creepy movie villains in the business today. (See him in "Blue Velvet") OK, there were some physical impossibilities in the film, but c'mon, most action films have them. (I've driven buses before, and they will not do many of the things in this movie.) This movie kept my eyes glued to the screen throughout. Grade: B+
Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 9 / 10
Inimitable bomb-on-a-bus thriller packs in the excitement
This high-octane thriller is a pretty good example of 'does what it says on the tin' film-making. There's a bus that'll explode if it slows down. End of story. The concept in itself is workable, but the film, directed by Jan De Bont's sure hand, is excellent, a real action classic with super-fast pacing and a storyline that never lets up. Things kick off with a tense rescue-trapped-passengers-in-an-elevator bid and are enlivened by an exploding bus shock scene.
We're then into the heart of the story, on board of a primed-to-explode bus, and all the genre clichés are in place, albeit in a slick and well-oiled form. Keanu Reeves plays the young hero (not as good as in THE MATRIX but pretty good) and Dennis Hopper is his overacting nemesis, chewing the scenery with relish. There's a heady combination of stunt work, sudden death, explosions, and tense shoot-outs and the film truly lives up to its "Die Hard on a bus" tagline. The only weak links are a hang-dog Jeff Daniels, miscast in a non-comedic role, and Sandra Bullock, whose ditzy, screamy heroine quickly becomes grating. An intelligent script is the real highlight of this slightly workmanlike, but nonetheless excellent, thriller.
Fun over realism admittedly, but I enjoyed it
"Speed" is an American English-language film from 1994, so two more years only until this one has its 25th anniversary. It was directed by Jan de Bont (actually the first directorial effort of this prolific cinematographer) and written by Graham Yost and for both of them this (almost) 2-hour movie is among their most famous. One reason is that this film won 2 of its 3 Oscar nominations (lost Editing to Forrest Gump) and another is that this film is still considered one of the defining action films from the 1990s. It features the relatively young Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock and (the not so young) Dennis Hopper. This is obviously not a film about individual performances, but it needs to be said that Reeves was working the part nicely and Hopper was also good, but admittedly had very little to work with in terms of both screen time and material. Bullock on the other hand I don't even think the performance was a problem at all, but eventually her portrayal was the weakest from the entire film and it is ridiculous she even got awards attention for her turn. It is the epitome of a badly-written female character in an action movie. Early on she gets hit on by a guy who is somewhat of a mini antagonist, but of course she is too good for him and then there are these banter moments with Reeves' character and we knew exactly where this was heading. She is a tough intelligent woman, but needs constant saving and nice words from the big hero. I cannot deny I would have preferred her character to be left completely out of the picture, but I guess they did not want to go for a sausage fest. Oh well.
Back to the positive: This film has a fairly massive runtime, but it never drags and has no lengths at all I would say. They weren't scared of sacrificing several of the good characters to show how evil the bad guy was and this is a brave approach that we do not always get. I also found it interesting how the movie, fitting the title, moves from slow to fast methods of transportation. It all starts in an elevator, then a bus (the core of the film), and eventually a metro train. Talking about the metro train, fans of the television show "The West Wing" will see (and hopefully enjoy) a familiar face in there. Back to this one here, this is not a film you want to go for if you are in need of realism. There were probably a hundred aspects that would not happen like that in reality or we can also include unrealistic plot developments here. There is a hole in the road and the rails aren't finished either? Nah. Also admittedly the screenplay is not particularly creative as all the ideas are fairly simple really, like the traffic jam or the lack of fuel etc. But I will admit they still worked. As did the entire film. It has its weaknesses and I would not call it a classic, but it was a genuinely entertaining two hours. I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out.