The most overrated action flick ever.

Rating: 2/10 (2 March 2008)

This movie blows, and for one very particular reason: the Incredible Leaping Bus scene. At one point in the film, the characters in the bus -- unable to slow down or they'll be blown up -- are faced with the choice of taking a road under construction, which might involve driving on dirt or other unpaved grades, or taking a bridge that is missing a section and thereby involves certain death. They choose the bridge. We are then treated to several seconds of tension as they approach the dropoff where they will obviously all be killed. Just as they approach the gap in the bridge -- where there is no launch ramp, the bus will clearly plunge downward as soon as the pavement ends -- the bus inexplicably leaps into the air, not even waiting to reach the edge of the pavement. It then sails perhaps thirty yards as if the laws of gravity have been suspended and lands pretty as you please on the other end of the bridge.
As a viewer, you tell yourself "Oh, so magic is involved!" The movie is ruined. There is no more suspense because clearly, whatever trouble they get into, they can just snap their fingers to get out of it.
The critics told us Speed was great, and then the audience was treated to this garbage. So when Speed II came out, it scarcely mattered what the critics thought of it, nobody was going to bother to see it. And then the critics couldn't figure out why Speed II tanked.