Speed

Rating:
Summary: "I feel the need. The need for speeeeeeeed!"
Review: You're going to say one thing after watching "Speed," and that will be "Whoa." This is an action film as exhausting as "Die Hard" and as exhilarating as the "Terminator" movies. It moves with the pacing of a John McTiernan picture and it has the perfection of a James Cameron action film. Its director, Jan De Bont, has worked on such films as "Die Hard" and "The Hunt for Red October," so it's no surprise that he bears a resemblance behind the camera to McTiernan.

The film is blunt, fast-paced and extremely exciting. It stars Keanu Reeves as Jack Traven, a Los Angeles bomb squad member as cool as he is decisive. Jack has been called into duty, along with his partner and friend, Harry (Jeff Daniels), to stop a madman bomber (Dennis Hopper), who has taken control of an elevator and will drop it to the ground unless his demand of three million dollars is met.

Jack takes his chances and ends up saving the day, but not before Harry is taken hostage and survives with a bullet shot. Howard Payne (Hopper) is dead, blown to pieces by his own bomb, and so they all go have a drink and party till the moon goes down and the sun rises up. You get the idea.

But Payne didn't really die, and now he's very mad at a certain somebody who foiled his last plan. He's spent a lifetime being treated as dirt, and he has convinced himself that he deserves the $3 million more than anybody else. Jack begs to differ, but he has no time to argue when Payne reappears and triggers a downtown bus with a bomb. The catch? If the bus accelerates past 50 M.P.H. and then drops below that point as before...kaboom.

Jack manages to board the bus, but not before it reaches 50, and not before the bus driver gets shot by a criminal on the bus and Annie (Sandra Bullock) has to play driver for the rest of the day. The problem is, downtown LA during rush hour is not exactly open to a large bus, so with the help of the LAPD, the bus is driven to a deserted stretch of highway, where they have a limited amount of time to either disarm the bus or pay up the sum of money to Payne.

Meanwhile, Howard Payne is monitoring everything from his position in an apartment in LA, where he has a gadget wired up to the security camera in the bus, so that he can watch everything that's happening. If anyone tries to get off the bus, or if anyone tries to be a hero, he presses a little red button and.kaboom. Only this time, he's determined not to fail.

This is a ludicrously and ridiculously delicious plot. I'm surprised it hasn't been done already. Well, actually, it sorta has. Yes, this film bears an uncanny resemblance to "Die Hard," only on a bus, but you know what? It's just about as good. It's exciting, humorous, and absolutely fun from start to finish. It never stops to go into boring conversations back at the FBI headquarters that so many action films do to try and make them look smarter. It never lets up for a moment once it starts.

All good action films have comedic relief, and "Speed" - apart from occasional witty remarks between Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves and/or Dennis Hopper - has Alan Ruck and Jeff Daniels. You may remember Ruck as Cameron Frye in John Hughes' "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), and you may remember him from the television show "Spin City," and here he plays a tourist who isn't really able to understand the situation they're in on the bus. "The airport?" he says as the bus swerves down a runway. "I've already been here."

Daniels is one of cinema's great character actors with dry subtle humor. He can do dramatics ("Gettysburg"), he can do comedy ("Dumb and Dumber"), and he can now do action. It takes an odd sort of acting genius to subtly upstage Jim Carrey, but he did just that in "Dumb and Dumber" by making a subtle goofball out of his character, Harry Dunne. Here he does the same with the sort of bleak sarcastic quips he was born to say.

Jan De Bont knows how to film action. Just when you think everything's going to slow down after the bus finally stops, we realize it's just the beginning. Payne kidnaps Annie, takes her to a subway train, and tries to run away with her to lure Jack. It works. And in the climatic gripper, Jack and Payne fight on the top of a speeding subway train. It was done in "Mission: Impossible" a small number of years later, but this came first. And the film is better.

Can Keanu Reeves act? Hardly. He does his usual "Whoa" routine here, where his lines primarily consist of long pauses and, "Huh?" "What?" "Whoa," "Wow," "F--k me," "Bogus," and so on. But an action film doesn't need a good actor, and Reeves fits the part. It was his breakthrough action role - without it, he never would have appeared in "The Matrix."

"Speed" is one of the great action films. It bears similarities to "Die Hard," "Lethal Weapon," "RoboCop," "Total Recall," "The Terminator" (1 and 2), "Predator," and all those other hard-punching action films with a fast pace and a real kick (it doesn't bear resemblance to all of the films as much as the raw force behind them). You know the kind of hard action flicks I mean - the kind that make you feel beaten up by the time it's all over. The kinds that make you leave the theater bruised and swollen.

You're going to be going 50 miles per hour watching "Speed," and in this case, that's a good - no, great - thing.

Rating:
Summary: Great action movie
Review: I bought this movie a few years back, and I can still enjoy it. This movie was praised because it was a great movie. This movie made it somewhere because it was simple for even 10 year olds (that's how old I was when I first saw it)to understand the plot. Movies that have a more complicated plot is not as enjoyable. If a movie goes too deep into the story, it's going to get boring and confusing. So kudos to the cast for making a movie that anyone can understand and enjoy. That's one big complaint about this movie. The second one is about the realism. If you were to rate all movies on the realism only, then the Matrix, the Hot Chick, and Resident Evil would all get below zero stars (or on amazon, all one stars). Plus the only unrealistic part is when the bus jumps a fifty foot gap, and it is kind of realistic. You couldn't jump fifty feet, but you could jump a few feet because of the incline. And when they make the turn at over fifty miles per hour, all of the passengers moved to the other side of the bus, which is realistic enough. The other big issue is bad acting. They did a great job and gave you solid entertainment. Let's see some of you act without screwing up every two seconds or getting fired for doing a bad job. Obviously these were the best people for the job and they did great.
Now on to the review. This movie was released in 1994 and became a big hit. It is funny, serious, and a great action movie that builds up the tension. Every few minutes there is a new obstacle to overcome and is vital to whether the bus blows up and they all die or the survival of the passengers on the bus. This movie has all the ingredients for a good movie. A hero (Keanu Reeves), the bad guy (Dennis Hopper), the sidekick (Jeff Daniels), the girl that the hero saves and falls in love with (Sandra Bullock), a simple plot (a psycho puts a bomb on a bus and if the bus goes below fifty miles per hour it will explode), and suspense that will keep you glued to your seat. It ultimatly aces that part, which is a hint that it is a good movie. This is my favorite movie besides Die Hard and is almost as good as Die Hard. This movie is great for anyone who enjoys action movies and can take some unrealistic action. This movie is highly recommended to everybody. ***** out of ***** for one of the best action movies of all time.

Rating:
Summary: This movie is the best i have ever seen!!!
Review: anyone I know that I got to watch this movie with me Liked it alot!it deserves Five stars,I wish I could go over 5.all of the action and stunts are just absoluteley fantastic.I love Keanu He is pretty awesome in this film,I also loved him as neo that was probably his best role as an actor.And any way Neo and Trinity are such a good couple.But as Jack Travin I kinda like him a little more in SPEED :) Uuhhh...Anyway!The whole plot is. dennis hopper sets a bomb on a elevator and he wants 3 million dollars or he will blow up the elevator and the people in it.The swat team gets there just in time and gets everyone off safely.Then hopper warns Jack that there's a bomb on bus number 2525.Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour the bomb is armed.If it drops below 50 ,it blows up what do you do jack.what do ya do.So he jumps in a guys car and rushes to where the bus is located and is speeding along side it on the freeway while the other guy is driving.So jack jumps on,and from there it goes on and they go through tons of twists and turns.Speed is awesome.some of my faverote parts are when the bus crashes in to the plain and blows up with it.And the 50 foot gap in the freeway.Or when the Subway track isnt finished and they crash out into the streets.I sware to god you will like this movie.

Rating:
Summary: you take a bus and put Neo on it and you got a good movie
Review: Keanu(aka Neo) is trying to save a bus load of people from trying to blow up from a bomb under neath the bus when it hits 50 mph. who put it there, well the guy who thought was dead but then popped up again, that man is Dennis Hopper. Keanu goes on and trys to keep it from going under 50 and his partner JEff Daniels is trying to figure out where Hopper is but then things go wrong as Hopper gains the upper hand but then Reeves has a trick up his sleeve and gets everyone off the bus and theres some sparks and chemistry between Sandra Bullock. Hopper takes Bullock on a train, Reeves hops on and trys to save Bullock and then Hopper's head goes bye bye. a masterpiece of action cinema with great and memorable scenes(remember the bus jumping that gap, where Hopper's head comes off and where Daniels goes to Hopper's house and then boooommmm!!!!)for Neo fans and fans of the others, you wont be let down. my suggestion, if you watch the 2nd one with Jason Patric in it, I suggest you steer clear of that mess. one of the best of 1994

Rating:
Summary: What a ride!
Review: I saw bits and pieces of this movie a few years ago, and didn't think much of it. Last night I watched it all the way through for the first time. What a ride!

I love the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Both their characters were so heroic and caring - what a great example!

The movie was just plain on-the-edge-of-your-seat action. It was fast, it was exciting, it was fun.

There wasn't a lot of cussing, but there were several bloody scenes. It wasn't nearly as gory as most similar kinds of movies are, however, which I appreciated.

This isn't going to change your life, but it's certainly a fun few hours.

Rating:
Summary: Get out the popcorn.
Review: Who would have thought that the monosyllabic Keanu Reeves could pull off an action role. (Okay, Stallone has made a career of it.) But the heart and soul of this movie lies with then unknown Sandra Bullock. It is her Annie who really tells this story. Reeves is just along to do the stunts.

Make no mistake about it... this is no great drama. Jan deBont is not so much a director, as a cinematographer that got a promotion. Just get out the popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A terrifying high-speed classic for the ages.
Review: Perhaps one of the most terrifying adrenaline-rushing movies ever made 1994's "Speed" is a terrifying but absolutely original movie with a very original plot.

Set in the traffic-congested streets of L.A., the beginnings of the attacks begin when a metro bus is blown up just as it makes its stop at a bus stop. Also, an elevator has its cables severed after a bomb that was planted explodes sending the elevator and numerous passengers in it plummeting over 50 floors down but is stopped temporarily but in only a matter of time, the elevator will crash to the bottom floor and can they rescue those on board before it's too late?

However, that is just the tip of the iceberg as two disgruntled cops, are on a hunt to bring down the reign of terror from a retired police officer turned terrorist Howard Payne, and save numerous passengers stuck on a bus with a powerful bomb planted that will explode when the speedometer goes below 50 miles per hour plus the passengers are held hostage as the escape routes are rigged with explosives that'll go off when any passenger attempts to escape through the exits!! Now the two disgruntled cops, with a large task force assembled, go on an extremely dangerous and highly adrenaline-rushing mission to rescue the passengers on the bus WITHOUT causing it to go below 50 miles per hour and also to stop Payne's terrorist activities.

The title of this movie is just downright perfect for what the movie really is. It's one very long extremely suspenseful ride along a terrifying visual assault, seeing the bus go over a 50 foot wide gap on an unfinished freeway, and through opposing traffic, I've never seen a movie like this that has so much action yet relatively little of the human to human kind of action, little fist fighting, guns shooting, etc. and for that this movie stands out among the numerous action movies of modern times, being a type of action movie that relies more on long suspenseful sequence rather than just a whole bunch of numerous human to human combat, gunfights, yada yada yada.....

Whoever came up with this clever movie plot was a total genius. Sad to see a great movie legacy be watered down with the lousy follow-up sequel "Speed 2: Cruise Control", which had little of the adrenaline and a far slower paced plot than this one. Even Sandra Bullock, who was excellent in this one, seemed like she was ready to leave the set with "Cruise Control" as soon as possible. On "Speed" though, she was just awesome, showing the sheer terror of Annie's experience on the bus as she tries to keep it from going below 50 mph.

Keanu Reeves may be having another glory era in his career with the Matrix movies right now but for me, "Speed" is Reeves' best acting performance of his career to date. Absolutely an astounding movie to watch whether one's brain is in on or off mode this movie is. Buy it today!

Rating:
Summary: Most overrated movie of all time...
Review: This thing was terrible and I thought it couldn't get any worse until I was forced by my wife to watch Speed 2!

Rating:
Summary: The point of this film is. . . . . .
Review: Get on the bus and cuss.Period.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Action Thriller!!
Review: "Speed" is, by far, one of the best action thrillers I have ever seen. It's use of thrills, suspense, humor, and romance makes this the perfect all-around movie.

The film revolves around Jack (Keanu Reeves), a member of the S.W.A.T. team, who gets involved with a madman bomber whom he thought had died years earlier when one of his bomb attacks went bad - an excellent suspenseful elevator scene by the way. The bomber, played hauntingly well by Dennis Hopper, has placed a bomb on a bus in the middle of Los Angeles. If that weren't bad enough, if the bus drops below 50 mph, the bomb will explode. It is up to Jack, with the help of Annie (Sandra Bullock), to bring all of the passengers to safety and stop the madman.

This is one film that will keep you on the edge of your seat and will leave you wanting more. This is also one of the few films where Keanu Reeves portrays a real action hero (long before the Matrix films were released), doing it very well. I would highly recommend this film! You won't be disappointed!!!