A Speeding Fool

The Christmas Movie

Last night the BBC showed the film speed. And even though I must have seen it a dozen times or more, I had to watch from start to finish. The cast was excellent. Keanu Reeves is watchable in all the films he does. And Sandra Bullock played her character well, but I think the standout performance came from Dennis Hopper.

This film had all that you would expect from an action movie of the early nineties. It opened with the hostages caught in the lift and this sequence was well executed by Jan De Bont. I believe this was the first feature film he made, but he had a good background in this movie genre because he was John McTiernean’s director of photography on Die Hard. And he also made Tomb Raider II which was better than the first Tomb Raider film. The highlight of the opening sequence was when Reeves was lowered down the elevator shaft and attached the hook to the car. Then there was that bit when he and Jeff Daniels face off with Hopper in the corridor.

But the film is most famous for its bus sequence which had it all, Reeves chasing it down the freeway and then boarding it at high speed. Then there was that bit when the bus had to make that hard right turn and went round that corner on set of wheels. It also had the bit when the driver was taken off the bus and then Hooper blew the step out and killed that woman who was trying to get off. The best part of this section of the film was when the bus had to make that jump across the unfinished section of the freeway.

Once the bus left the freeway they entered the airport and Reeves then tries to deactivate the bomb whilst the bus is still in motion. He gets on this cart thing that is being towed by a truck and goes under the speeding bus. He obviously fails, and gets caught under said bus and ruptures the fuel tank. He then gets dragged back into the bus.

Once all of the passengers have been removed from the bus it’s time to evacuate Bullock and this is done by turning on of the buses inspection covers into a sledge and her and Reeves lower themselves out from under the bus and flee the scene to relative safety. The bus then crashes into a plane and gets engulfed in flames.

At this point the movie loses its way a little and the action moves to one of LA’s subways and basically recreates the bus sequence but underground. But apart from this, this movie was an all round enjoyable action adventure.

Keanu Reeve

The film also benefited from having it's script reworked by Joss Whedon of Buffy fame. This movie really did exactly what it said on the tin. So my Christmas day was finished off well, with this entertaining movie.