A thrilling, high speed chase that crashes and burns in the final act.

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2006)

Speed is a film that owes a debt to the classic disaster tales of the 1970s. People who found themselves at the mercy of situations beyond their control. The central conceit to Speed is quite simple. A mad bomber (hammily played by Dennis Hopper) rigs a bus to explode if it should drop below 50mph. It's quite an easy concept to digest which is what makes the film so easy to enjoy.
LAPD cop Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) has the unenviable task of saving the passengers on their runaway bus. And it's an uphill struggle to say the least. Caught in the rush hour, the bus has to dodge cars, traffic jams, freeway gaps and petrol leaks all while it's in continual motion.
Speed may be a bit thin on the ground plot-wise. At it's most basic level, it's just a series of escalating obstacles and pile-ups just to keep the film going. But it is genuinely exhilarating, and the pace never flags.
Keanu Reeves is typically wooden but he's in his element. Speed was the film that catapulted Sandra Bullock to stardom. Something she deserved, because she runs rings around everyone else. Bullock makes her character, Annie into an admirably feisty heroine, who has to drive the bus around LA's highways, while at the same time shooting off wisecracks every two minutes. The low-key attraction between Jack and Annie is effective without ever dragging the film down.
Bullock almost singlehanded keeps the film afloat during Speed's more fragile moments. Some of the obstacles the bus encounters are very contrived, like the gap in the road. When the bus has to clear it, it's an exhilarating piece of stunt work, but there's no way it could ever happen in real life. Sometimes in films like this, you have to turn a blind eye to logic.
Speed is remarkably assured throughout most of the running time, considering the scant material to work with. But a tight script makes the film more fun then it has a right to be. There are still some glaring plot holes though. Like why Jack never noticed the camera on the bus earlier.
But then, once the bus blows up, the film dies on it's feet. Switching the action to a subway train, the film steps very wrong, and becomes laughable to the point of stupidity. And it even contrives another obstacle in the same vein as the freeway gap. The track isn't finished. Give me a break! Watch Collateral and see how the ending could (and should) have been.
Shame that Speed goes right off the tracks at the end, because it ruins what was a very suspenseful, exciting adventure. Oh well, fun while it lasted, and at least it's better than the dreadful Speed 2. Not even Sandra Bullock could save that one!