Ridiculous plot, ridiculous fun

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 2011)

Of the fine crop of 1990s action thrillers, "Speed" is probably the most widely mocked. It is undeniably the silliest and most implausible basic premise - a madman obsessed with revenge against a bomb squad cop has planted a bomb a city bus that will explode if the bus drops below 50 miles per hour.
However, it's really not that more unlikely than the cloned dinosaurs and time-traveling robots or earth-conquering aliens that populated other great blockbusters of the decade. It's just a little bit sillier. The movie seems to revel in its silliness, though, asking us to believe that a bus could make a 50 foot jump across a freeway, among other things.
"Speed", perhaps more than any of the 90s blockbusters, seems gleeful in its realization that a silly premise and a complete lack of realism are no particular impediments to a crowd-pleasing film. With good pacing, spectacular stunts and like-able leads, the movie will succeed, and Speed is proof of that.
"Speed" isn't the best of the 1990s thrillers but it's still pretty good, much better than the massive amount of mockery its plot received would suggest.