Speed
1994 was kind of a phantom zone era in some ways, the bridge between the fun loving 80s and the cell phone obsessed, internet dominated world which we live in today, with several aspects of each of these two realms either still or already in play. One thing for sure about the 80s though, was the abundance of great action films and the legendary stars who populated them, and some of the decision makers in Hollywood werenāt about to give up in this pre CGI era, so out came this particular entry in the sweepstakes, an amazingly dumb yet adrenaline pumped roller coaster ride with a plot straight out of the Die Hard assembly line, about a crazed, ruthless mad bomber who having been thwarted by a hotshot LAPD bomb squad member who plays by his own rules, decides to hit him with the ultimate challenge, one where he rigs a bomb on an LA transit bus while gimmicking it so that not only does the bomb become armed if it hits 50 MPH, it will completely detonate if it drops below that speed as well, even telling the young buck cop which bus it is so that he can race to the rescue and try to save everyone on board and once again be a big hero. As directed by first timer Jan DeBont (already a big name Hollywood DP who had been the cinematographer on Die Hard), this variation of the formula (and the so called cinematic Mad Bomber which had been a staple of movies going back to the 1950s) proved to be a success largely due to the unstoppable pacing that it employed, something that should have guaranteed DeBont a place at the table as a big name helmer at least on the level of Renny Harlin but would later be derailed by a series of consecutive flops afterwards (including Speed 2: Cruise Control) that resulted in him being nearly blackballed out of the industry instead. For its lead hero role, they cast Keanu Reeves in what was pretty much a sound decision given that he was coming off of the classic action flick Point Break opposite Patrick Swayze as the super charismatic villain and it was obvious that he was ready to try his hand at something even more intense. As The Mad Bomber himself, they scored an even bigger casting coup in the form of Dennis Hopper, all revved up once again to play one of his classic crazy bad guy roles. Hopperās Howard Payne is interesting because while they DO give him a background (ex cop and retired bomb squad member who was forced to retire and go on disability after losing his thumb to an explosive device), they fail to give him any kind of actual backstory or real motive for his actions in explaining why he suddenly snapped so hard given that many officers injured in the line of duty donāt really become so bitter that they go off on insane killing rampages such as this. Fortunately, in the capable hands of Hopper, very little of that actually seems to matter here as the actor goes all out at relishing in the kind of evil that is on display here, as the most chilling aspect of the character is that while Hopper DOES make some obligatory ransom demands for his bomb threats, itās pretty obvious that he would derive just as much pleasure (if not more so) from simply blowing the bombs instead and ending the lives of scores of innocent people. Even Reeves makes that very presumption early on, when he and his partner (Jeff Daniels) foil his opening gambit (after making one of the cheesiest action hero entrances of all time), the planting of some bombs on an elevator in an office building full of frightened executives with Daniels winding up injured and Hopper seemingly finding a way to fake his death by blowing a bomb during his getaway even while all the hostages remain unharmed. Life goes on under the idea that Hopper is dead and gone until one morning Reeves witnesses the explosion of a bus driven by an off duty driver who is a friend of his, only to get a call from a cackling Hopper immediately after putting him up to the latest challenge on the aforementioned rigged bus (with the same ransom demands still in place for money that Hopper feels is OWED to him for his years of public service) and so now itās simply a matter of Reeves tracking the bus down (with the bomb having already been armed to go off after acceeding 50 MPH), jumping on board, and taking charge of the situation with the passengers and driver, which includes Alan Ruck (having long ago entered the Wussy Hall Of Fame for his pathetic Cameron in Ferris Buellerās Day Off) as an obnoxious tourist and Sandra Bullock looking cute as a button (but when is she isnāt?) as the female passenger forced to take over the wheel of the bus when the original driver becomes disabled despite having had her own licence suspended for excessive speeding. And here is where the true cosmic joke of the movie comes into play, as while Reeves clearly got some career traction from this role and Hopperās legendary status was already long since well preserved, it was actually BULLOCK who saw her own career skyrocket into the stratosphere from this movie, in no small part due to the arguable reality that by playing her part as being scared yet still super sweet and strong, she actually managed to steal the movie itself outright from Reevesā supercop, so much so that when Reeves opted out of the sequel due to disinterest and preferring to go on tour with his band instead, the producers actually felt comfortable enough to offer her top billing and the starring role in Speed 2 while nonetheless making the VERY unpopular decision to replace Reeves in the male action lead with Jason Patric (the less said about that the better), but after the release of the original film, Bullockās stature as the go to girl next door in Hollywood has never wavered up to and including her Oscar win. In other roles, Daniels turns in solid work as the partner who perhaps realizes even more clearly than his youthful partner just how psychotic and dangerous Hopper really is and Joe Morton as their long suffering Lieutenant deserves credit for being the first cinematic police commanding officer to spend much of his screen time in the line of fire himself, riding on a rig next to the bus while in constant communication with Reeves when the whole time we know that if the bomb blows both he and his other SWAT team members will go up with it. The film suffers from a lame tendency to have various minor hostage characters engage in supposedly āhumorousā bits of dialogue that are neither actually funny nor even remotely engaging (a major, major problem when it came to the sequel as well) and the impossible physical logistics of a number of scenes come to the fore during one part when the bus makes a jump across a 50 foot gap in the highway, the impact of which would have easily either killed or crippled everyone on board but here is portrayed as being just another bit of business in the service of the filmās intense pacing. And what pacing it is! Along with the frightened, agitated behavior of the bus passengers and the wild smash em ups that Bullock accomplishes behind the wheel, the only actual respites we get are with Daniels back at headquarters working behind a desk and Hopper in his remote lair happily looking on at the whole thing unfolding while watching all of the major news networks (and a couple of football games) for coverage of the events that he had set in motion, constantly proving that he has all of his bases covered even though he is basically just a crazy person working alone. With all of the wild action on display, it must also be said that things do peter out in the last few minutes when it comes to the business of dealing with Hopper himself and the phony ransom drop that leads to an action sequence on a subway train and Bullockās involvement as well (when she should never have been there in the first place and the reasons why she is are sketchy at best) which needless to say winds up with another spectacular crash scene even as the viewer starts to feel that this is all a little dragged out and too amped up for its own good. Nonetheless, this still remains an action classic to this day (albeit a somewhat ridiculous one played straight) with some truly genuine emotional payoffs as it goes along, something that many lesser films of this genre find almost impossible to musterā¦
8/10